ABSTRACT
In high yielding dairy cows, one of the major cause of lameness during transition period is the altered nutritional status of pregnant animal. Concentrations of essential nutrients get varied and often decrease around calving due to physiological factors and thus extra-supplementation is recommended in these animals. Blood measures are frequently used in assessment of the vital nutrients for predicting the risk of lameness during this period. The objective of this study was to investigate the nutritional status of healthy and lame Karan Fries (KF) cows and their association with lameness score during transition period. For this fifteen high-yielding crossbreed (KF) healthy cows and fifteen high yielding crossbreed (KF) lame cows were randomly selected from the Livestock Research Centre (LRC) of National Diary Research Institute, Karnal for pooled blood sample collection. Samples were collected 60d, 15d pre-partum, on the day of calving, and 60d, 15d post-partum. The results revealed that the mean plasma biotin, zinc (below critical level) and calcium (within range) levels were significantly lower (P<0.05) in lame KF cows while β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) concentrations was significantly higher, however no significant difference in plasma copper, glucose and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) concentrations was found in lame cows as compared to normal KF cows during this period. There was also significant (P<0.05) variation of blood biochemical profiles (glucose, NEFA and BHBA) and plasma biotin concentration among different lameness scores (1-5) whereas no relation of mineral profiles (calcium, zinc and copper) was seen with lameness score
ABSTRACT
The present study was conducted at Livestock Research Centre (LRC), ICAR-NDRI, Karnal To find out the effect of poly herbal mixture supplementation on postpartum productive performance in KF cows. Thirty multiparous calved KF cows were chosen and divided into three groups, 10 cows in each group. One group was considered as control (C) and other two as treatment groups (T1 and T2). The control (C) group cows were offered the ration as per the standard feeding schedule (ICAR, 2013). The treatment group (T1 and T2) cows were offered the same ration and then additionally the polyherbal mixture combination (25 g each of the herbals + 25g black salt + 250g jaggery) as a treatment for the first 10 and 20 days postpartum period in T1 and T2 group, respectively. The productive related parameters, such as 60 days total milk yield (60 DTMY), peak yield (PY), days to peak yields (DPY), milk compositions and production disorders were recorded in 60 days of postpartum period. The treatment groups, 60 DTMY, PY and DPY were increased as compared to control group. Milk fat % and SNF % of treatment groups (T1 and T2) were more or less similar, if compared with the control group. Milk lactose % of T1 and milk protein% of T2 were significantly (P≤0.05) higher at 60th day of lactation. The productive disorders incidence was also very low in treatment groups (T1 and T2) during the 60 days postpartum period