blood test

[garrethdsouza]

I'd be interested to know about epa/dha levels especially of people who don't supplement for it.

[brimstoneSalad]

The Rumens in cows (a specialized organ in the digestive system for fermenting), can yield B-12 from bacterial sources.

I've only seen reference to adding it for young calves, and some cases of disease or deficiency:
http://www.roysfarm.com/vitamin-b12-def ... in-cattle/

Most other animals eat some of their own feces to get B-12 in the wild.

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S15 ... ci_arttext

Cobalt supplementation in the diets of laying hens in the second cycle of production did not influence egg production, egg quality, blood characteristics, and cobalt levels in the liver and yolk within the trial period, suggesting that there is no need for cobalt supplementation; however, vitamin B12 supplementation increased egg weight.

(they made a mistake in the abstract)

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/di ... id=4628096
http://littlepigfarm.com/swine-feed-and-nutrition/

Husbandry methods vary, of course. This is why I said many or most, I'm only sure that it's not all.

Chickens are, of course, fed a lot of their own shit too, which would be rich in B-12 as long as they haven't been on a very heavy course of antibiotics.

And apparently, so are cows (which would be another source of B-12 for cows):
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/31 ... /fi-feed31

"In the old days when people had mixed farms, what came out the back end of the cows was eaten by pigs, and what came out the end of pigs was eaten by chickens. That was the natural way of farming," he said. "Anything that hit the ground was fair game."

Lots of shit eating, all around. And chickens are also fed bits of dead cows.

As you mentioned, cobalt is another important supplement for feed, so that the bacteria can produce adequate levels of B-12. This may be more common (particularly for cows) than feeding B-12 to them regularly, due to reduced cost.

B-12 is not fed to them because it's no longer in the soil, though. Wild animals don't typically get much B-12 from soil, more from feces. Cobalt may be supplemented due to low levels in the feed, I suppose, which could derive from soil deficiency.

[EquALLity]

^Thanks!