914 XIV. NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF FATS 



the symptoms of avitaminosis A are accentuated.^-^ However, when the 

 relative efficiencies of the several vegetable fats and of margarine fat and 

 butterfat were tested in rats injected with growth hormone, no differences 

 were found in the ability of the various groups to sustain the increased rate 

 of tissue formation attributable to the hormone. ^-^ 



e'. Experiments on Calves: Gullickson, Fountaine, and Fitch^-^ re- 

 ported that calves fed on a skim milk diet into which lard, tallow, coconut 

 oil, peanut oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, or soybean oil was homogenized, in 

 place of butterfat, did poorly. Some of the calves which received corn oil, 

 cottonseed oil, or soybean oil died, while others were saved only by chang- 

 ing their diet to whole milk. In a later report by the Gullickson group, ^^^ 

 the authors stated that calves showed no ill effects from consuming homoge- 

 nized milk containing 3.5% of hydrogenated vegetable oil for a period of 

 over forty-five days, although the feeding of the non-hydrogenated vege- 

 table oil and milk diet resulted in rapid depletion of the vitamin A and 

 tocopherol in the blood plasma of the calves, and in tissue changes and 

 lesions of the heart and striated muscles. These symptoms were relieved 

 by the substitution of butterfat for the vegetable oil in the ration. Certain 

 recent reports tend to minimize the importance of the early Gullickson 

 work.^-^ Cunningham and Loosli^^^ reported that newborn calves did not 

 thrive on a fat-free diet, but developed leg weakness and muscular twitches 

 within one to five weeks, and died unless a source of fat was supplied. This 

 condition could be cured by feeding an artificial milk containing 4% of lard, 

 and could be prevented if the synthetic diet contained 2% of lard. When 

 hydrogenated coconut oil in an amount of 2% was added, the development 

 of these symptoms was prevented. Arrington and Reaves^^- also noted 

 that fats are essential food components in the calf diet. More recently 

 Lambert and co-workers^^' observed that growing calves require the EFA. 

 Thus, when calves were placed on a fat-free diet, typical fat-deficiency 

 symptoms developed which could be cured not only with butter oil but also 

 with hydrogenated soybean oil plus lecithin. Thus, the gain-in-weight of 

 calves on the fat-free regimen for the first fifty-six days of life averaged 



«8 B. H. ErshofT and H. J. Deuel, Jr., Endocrinology, 36, 280-282 (1945). 



3"T. W. Gullickson, F. C. Fountaine, and J. B. Fitch, /. Dairy Sci., 25, 117-128 

 (1942). 



330 T. W. GulUckson, R. S. Adams, J. Gander, and J. H. Sautter, J. Dairy Sci., 36, 599- 

 600(1953). 



"1 H. M. Cunningham and J. K. Loosli, J. Dairy Sci., 37, 453-461 (1954). 



"2 L. R. Arrington and P. M. Reaves, J. Dairy Sci., 31, 1-9 (1948). 



3" M. R. Lambert, N. L. Jacobson, R. S. Allen, and J. H. Zaletel, /. Nutrition, 52, 259- 

 274(1954). 



