Effect of clay minerals supplementation on nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, and performance of buffalo calves

Hussein, Y. Z.; Abdo, S. G.; Hassan, E. H.; Farghali, Mohsen Mohamed; Farghaly, M. M.

doi:10.21608/aasj.2023.205721.1148

Effect of clay minerals supplementation on nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, and performance of buffalo calves

Document Type : Research article

Authors

¹ Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut 71524, Egypt

² department of animal production, faculty of agriculture, Assiut university

³ Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

10.21608/aasj.2023.205721.1148

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of adding clay minerals such as bentonite and choline on the digestion of nutrients, blood parameters, and growth performance of buffalo calves. Twelve clinically healthy male buffalo calves aged approximately 11–12 months with average body weight (336.50 ± 20.55 kg) were randomly distributed into three different groups (four animals each). The 1^st group was a control or basal diet without supplements, while the 2^nd (T1) and 3^rd (T2) groups were fed the same basal diet with a supplement of 1% bentonite and choline, respectively. The results revealed that the average daily gain and total dry matter intake (DMI) did not affected by dietary supplementation. However, the feed conversion ratio was improved (P< 0.05) in the clay minerals groups in comparison to the control group. The treatment groups were higher (P<0.05) in serum glucose, and calcium and lower (P<0.05) in triglycerides, and urea-N concentrations than the control. Digestibility of crude protein (CP), crude fiber (CF), and either extract (EE) was increased (P<0.05) with the supplementation of clay minerals. Also, the supplement bentonite increased (P<0.05) dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), and nitrogen-free extract (NFE) digestibility as compared with other groups. The feeding value in terms of starch value (SV) and digestible crude protein (DCP) was improved (P<0.05) with clay minerals groups. It can be concluded that clay minerals such as bentonite and choline are considered one of the effective ways to improve the average daily gain, blood biochemical parameters, nutrient digestibility, and feed conversion ratio of buffalos calves while the carcass characteristics were not significantly affected.

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