Haematologic and growth response to prepartum administration of vitamin A in calves.

Injectable vitamin A was given to six pregnant beef cows in their last third of pregnancy to study the effect of this vitamin in their calves. Average birth weight and growth rate of calves from the treated cows were higher than that of calves from the nontreated cows. Prepartum vitamin A injections also resulted in a significant increase (P less than 0.05) in the mean corpuscular volume (MCV), total serum protein and globulin fraction of serum protein in calves of treated cows.