Trace minerals including copper, zinc, selenium, iodine, manganese, and cobalt are essential micronutrients for cattle health. Deficiencies cause significant welfare problems and are widespread in certain soil types and management systems.
Trace mineral deficiencies cause suffering that ranges from acute (white muscle disease causing inability to stand and muscle pain in newborn calves) to chronic and insidious (progressive immune suppression, poor coat, weight loss, and reproductive failure over months). Because deficiency signs are often non-specific and develop gradually, many cases go unrecognised or are attributed to other causes. Animals experiencing deficiency-related immune suppression are more susceptible to infectious diseases, compounding their welfare burden. The challenge is that mineral status cannot be assessed by clinical observation alone — blood and liver sampling is needed, but is not always undertaken routinely. Soil-map awareness and proactive testing on known at-risk farms are the most effective prevention strategies.