USE OF COBALT COMPOUNDS AS ADDITIVES IN ANIMAL NUTRITION
07/12/2009
Author: EFSA
The Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) concluded that the potential cobalt supplementation to diets for ruminants, horses and rabbits should be maintained. A cobalt supplementation of 0.3 mg/kg dry matter and, taking into account cobalt background concentrations of feed material not exceeding 0.5 mg/kg dry matter of complete feed, a maximum content of 1 mg Co/kg complete feed, is considered appropriate. For fish diets, the existing maximum content of 2 mg Co/kg complete feed should be maintained due to the higher background levels of Co in fish meal, a major part of fish diets.
The tolerance of ruminants to cobalt is very high and greatly in excess of the requirements. Therefore, it is considered unlikely that cobalt toxicity in target animals could be a major problem in practice. Among foodstuffs of animal origin, offal shows the highest cobalt content, liver with about 0.02-0.07 mg/kg fresh weight (FW), followed by kidney with about 0.001-0.01 mg/kg FW. Meat is in the range of 0.001-0.02 mg/kg FW as are fillets of freshwater fish. Milk and eggs contain about 0.004-0.005 mg Co/kg; dairy products like cheese and butter are relatively rich in cobalt (0.02 mg/kg FW).
