Meeting the Vitamin A Requirement: The Efficacy and Importance of β-Carotene in Animal Species

Table 1

Estimated vitamin A requirements and safe upper limits in RE¹/kg dry matter in animal species. Requirements listed are the minimum requirements or adequate intake values.

Species	Physiological state	Requirement	Upper limit	References
Cat	Growth	1000	80,000	[210]
	Maintenance	1000	100,000
	Gestation and lactation	2000	100,000
Catfish	All	450	9999	[10, 202]
Chicken	Growth	450	4500	[10, 195]
	Laying	900	13500
Cockatiel	Maintenance	600	<3000	[15]
Common carp	All	1200	ND	[10, 202]
Cow, beef	Feedlot	660	19800	[10, 211]
	Pregnant heifers and cows	840	19800
	Lactating cows and bulls	1170	19800
Cow, dairy	Growth	1014	19800	[10, 212]
	Lactating cows and bulls	840	19800
Dog	Growth, gestation, lactation	1212	15,000	[210]
	Maintenance	1212	64,000
Fox	Growth	732	ND	[213]
Geese	Growth	450	4500	[10, 195]
	Breeding	1200	4500
Goat	Maintenance	1500	13500	[10, 214]
	Lactation	1750
Hamster	All	1223	ND	[156]
Horse	Maintenance	549	4800	[215]
	Growth, working	450–690	4800
	Pregnancy and lactation	825–1110	4800
Human	Adult male	1200	6000	[10, 160]
Mink	Growing	1779	ND	[213]
Mouse	All	800	ND	[156]
Pig	Growing, 5–10 kg	660	6000	[10, 216]
	Growing, 20–120 kg	390	6000
	Pregnant swine and boars	1200	12000
	Lactating	600	12000
Rabbit	Growing, maintenance	174	4800	[10, 217]
	Gestation	497	4800
Rainbow trout	All	750	7500	[10, 202]
Salmon	All	750	7500	[10, 202]
Sheep	Replacement ewes, 60 kg	470	13500	[10, 218]
	Pregnancy, 70 kg	992	13500
	Lactation, 70 kg	714	13500
	Replacement rams, 80–100 kg	593	13500
Turkey	Growing and breeding	1500	4500	[10, 195]

1 retinol equivalent (RE) = 1 g retinol.