Effect of protein supplementation on tropical grass hay utilization by beef steers drinking saline water1

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to assess the impact of increasing levels of supplemental soybean meal (SBM; 45.7% CP) in cattle consuming tropical grass hay (Panicum maximum cultivar Gatton; 7.0% CP and 81.8% NDF) and drinking low salt water (LS) or high salt water (HS). Six ruminally fistulated beef steers (BW = 375 ± 43 kg) were used in a 6-treatment, 4-period crossover experiment. Treatments were arranged as a 2 × 3 factorial, with 2 levels salt in the water (LS and HS: 786 and 6,473 mg/kg of total dissolved solids [TDS], respectively) and 3 levels of SBM (0, 0.2, and 0.4% BW/d). After 15 d of adaptation to treatments, periods consisted of 5 d for intake and digestibility determination, 1 d for monitoring ruminal fermentation, 1 d for ruminal evacuation, and 1 d for blood sampling. Supplemental SBM × water quality interactions were significant (P < 0.05) for most measures of intake, except for total tract digestible OM intake (P = 0.38) and total tract digestible NDF intake (TTDNDFI; P = 0.32). At greater levels of SBM, forage OM intake, NDF intake, and water intake seemed to reach a plateau in LS while this was not observed in HS. Total tract digestible OM intake increased linearly (P = 0.01) and TTDNDFI tended to increase (P = 0.09) in response to increased SBM. Digestibility of OM and NDF were not affected by treatment (P > 0.21). Passage rate of acid detergent insoluble ash linearly increased (P < 0.01) in response to SBM, although it was not affected by water quality (P = 0.98). Total VFA concentrations and ruminal pH were not affected (P > 0.60 and P > 0.31, respectively) by treatment. Ruminal ammonia N levels were linearly increased by SBM supplementation (P < 0.01) but were not affected by water quality (P = 0.25). However, ruminal ammonia tended (P = 0.09) to be greater in HS at 0.2% of SBM supplementation. No interaction was observed for plasma urea N (PUN; P = 0.20). Plasma urea N was affected by SBM supplementation (P = 0.05) and water quality (P < 0.01). However, PUN did not differ for 0.4% SBM supplementation (P = 0.30) either at LS or HS treatments. In conclusion, a high level of SBM supplementation (0.4% BW) counteracted the detrimental effect of high TDS in drinking water on low-quality forage consumption by cattle.

High Salt Diet Affects the Reproductive Health in Animals: An Overview

“…Studies on animals revealed that high salt reduces the growth performance parameters: live body weight gain (LBWG), daily body weight gain (DBWG), and feed and water intake (FI and WI, respectively), and decrease the digestibility of nutrients [3,20,23,24]. On the other hand, some reports indicated that high salt consumption had no effects on LBWG, DBWG, and FI and WI) [25][26][27].…”

“…The consumption of high salt diets resulted in lower growth performance in sheep [3], whereas LBWG was slower relative to high salt content [20]. One explanation for the disturbances in animal performance raised in the salt-land pasture has frequently been attributed to reduced FI and poor plant digestibility [23], it is more probable owing to excess sodium intake [28]. Results indicated that the growth performance of animals reared in saline land pasture would be decreased, while halophytic shrubs only accounted for 30% of the total pasture diet.…”

Climate Adaptation of Tropical Cattle

“…In the following analysis, a reference dealing with two or more categories was counted only once in the category it most suited. Of the 100, the main topics of the studies broke down as follows: There were 35 studies of breeds and breeding (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24); 32 studies of feeds, nutrition, or pastures (25)(26)(27)(28)(29); 11 studies of parasites and disease resistance (30)(31)(32)(33)(34); 10 studies of genes or genomes (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40); 8 studies of the environment, including mitigation, farming systems, and biofuels (41)(42)(43)(44)(45); and 4 studies of reproduction (46,47). Of these 100 studies, there were 15 studies that took into account heat; 5 in which heat was the main focus; and 10 in which either heat was the minor focus or the traits studied were surrogates for heat, such as coat characteristics (48)(49)(50)(51).…”

Impacts of saline water stress on livestock production: A review

“…In addition, in goats, Mdletshe et al (2017) showed that the average daily feed intake was significantly (P<0.05) reduced with increasing salinity levels in drinking water in female goats from 0 to 5.5 and from 5.5 to 11 g TDS/l . Similarly, saline water decreased feed intake in sheep (Wilson and Dudzinski, 1973;El-Sherif and El-Hassanein, 1996), goats (Eltayeb, 2006;Mohammed, 2008;Zoidis and Hadjigeorgiou, 2017), heifers (Weeth et al, 1960;Weeth and Haverland, 1961), steers (Patterson et al, 2003(Patterson et al, , 2004López et al, 2014), beef cattle (López et al, 2016) and calves . In addition, in monogastric animals, saline water decreased feed intake in weanling pigs (Anderson and Stothers, 1978) and rabbits (Abdel-Samee and El-Masry, 1992).…”

“…In addition, López et al (2016) found that saline water (7478 mg TDS/l ) decreased (P<0.01) the water intake by 22% in beef cattle compared with tap water group. Furthermore, water consumption was decreased by saline water consumption in steers (Patterson et al, 2003(Patterson et al, , 2004López et al, 2014), calves and buffalo calves .…”