Effect of feeding deoiled mahua (Bassia latifolia) seed cake on the growth performance, digestibility and balance of nutrients in cross‐bred calves during pre‐patent period of Fasciola gigantica infection

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the growth performance and nutrient utilization of cross-bred calves serially infected with Fasciola gigantica and/or supplemented with deoiled mahua seed cake (DMSC) during pre-patent period of infection. Twenty healthy cross-bred (Holstein Friesian × Haryana) male calves aged 6-7 months with an initial average live weight of 79.6 ± 2.71 kg were divided into four treatment groups (CON, CON-INF, DMC and DMC-INF) of five animals each following randomized block design. DMSC was included in the concentrate mixture of DMC and DMC-INF groups at 100 g/kg level. Animals of groups CON-INF and DMC-INF were given an infection of 200 metacercariae (mc) of F. gigantica as serial infection dose of 50 mc twice weekly over a period of 2 weeks. A metabolism trial at 40-49 days post-infection and growth trial of 145 days duration were conducted. The average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were significantly (p < 0.05) lower in CON-INF group as compared to others. The ADG and FCR were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in DMC-INF as compared to CON-INF. The intake and digestibility of nutrients were not affected by serial infection with F. gigantica during pre-patent period. However, significantly (p < 0.001) higher urinary excretion and significantly (p < 0.001) lower nitrogen balance were observed in CON-INF group as compared to other three groups. The nitrogen balance was significantly (p < 0.001) improved in DMC-INF group as compared to CON-INF group. From the results, it may be deduced that the supplementation of deoiled mahua seed cake at 100 g/kg level in the concentrate mixture has improved the growth performance and nitrogen utilization in cross-bred calves infected with F. gigantica.

Evaluation of mahua oilcake (Bassia latifolia Roxb.) as a non-conventional feed ingredient for Labeo rohita (Ham.) fingerlings

“…Hence, incorporation of 30% MOC not only yielded significant growth performance and least FCR, but also replaced the conventional ingredients like GNOC and rice bran at 120 and 180 g kg -1 respectively. Ojha et al (2013) and Jacob et al (2015) reported better growth of crossbred calves with 10% of MOC incorporation. Tiwari et al (1996) incorporated raw MOC at 20% level in the crossbred calves without affecting body weight gain.…”

“…Limited literature is available on the use of MOC in ruminant feed. Incorporation of raw MOC as one of the feed ingredients at 10-20% in cattle gives significantly higher growth performance (Jakhmola et al, 1987;Tiwari et al,1996;Singh et al, 2011;Patil et al, 2013;Jacob et al, 2015). No literature is available on the use of MOC as feed ingredient for fish feed.…”

Tolerance of liver fluke infection varies between breeds and producers in Scottish beef cattle

“…Previous studies have found similar effects of fluke infection on daily weight gain in beef cattle, although most have used data from experimental infections. These effects range from negligible (Echevarria, et al ., 1992) to substantial effects of a 0.1kg/day difference between infected and uninfected animals (Jacob, et al ., 2015) and a difference of 0.7kg/day in Belgian Blue bulls experimentally infected on a feedlot (Genicot, et al ., 1991). Meanwhile, a previous study using data from the same abattoir as used in the present study – albeit with a smaller sample size of 619 cattle – found substantial effects of fluke infection, with animals with fibrosis scores of 1, 2 and 3 taking on average 34, 93, and 78 days longer to reach slaughter weight, respectively (Mazeri, et al ., 2017).…”