Assessment of Phosphorus Levels in Small Ruminants as Affected by Summer and Winter

An experiment was carried out to assess the phosphorus status of free grazing goats at Faisalabad, Pakistan. Samples were collected fortnightly during summer and winter seasons of 2010 from soil and plants. The highest (118±0.54 mg ? kg^?1) levels of feces phosphorus were recorded in lactating goats during winter and (9.87±0.99 mg ? kg^?1) in urine of male during winter. Similarly maximum (71.0±0.88 mg ? kg^?1) phosphorus concentration was observed in the plasma of lactating animals. Milk contained (31.0±0.36) mg ^? L^?1 in winter while during the months of summer the highest values recorded in forages, soils, canal and tube well waters were (755±1.98) mg ? kg^?1, (785±4.98) mg ? kg^?1, (0.97±8.78) mg ? L^?1 and (4.12±0.55) mg ? L^?1, respectively. It was revealed from the current results that fecal matter, forage, milk, tube well and canal water contained lower amounts of P, while P levels in blood plasma was found within the critical limits. Therefore, phosphorus supplementations were required in the area under experimentation to meet the requirements of the animals for their normal growth.