Effect of microbial feed additives and replacement of cereal grain with wheat bran on the performance of male crossbred calves

Abstract

The present scenario of animal production in India warrants for the search of alternate and cheaper feed ingredients for livestock feeding to economize the animal husbandry. Further more among the different feed additives being used in livestock production, the microbial feed additives (probiotic) are gaining importance as a production enhancer in animals (Dutta et al. 2006, Hummel et al. 2007). The feeding of lactic acid bacteria to the animal results in removal of pathogenic micro-organisms from the intestinal tract reduced incidence of diarrhoea and increased immunity and live weight gain in the livestock (Baksbi and Langer 1990, Cruywagen et al. 1996, Emmanuel et al. 2007). The inconsistency in the results of probiotics feeding might be due to type and quality of strains, physiological stage, dietary condition of the animal and dose of probiotics (Agarwal et al. 2002, Raeth-Knight et al. 2007). The present study was undertaken to study the effect of feeding lactic acid producing bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus jugarti and Lactobacillus case i) with grain or without cereal grain in concentrate mixtures on the nutrient utilization and growth performance of male crossbred cattle calves. Male crossbred (Bos indicusx'Iaurus) cattle calves (20) at the age of 13 weeks were distributed into 4 groups of 5 animals each. The 4 different treatment groups were as group 1 (GC, with grain and LAB culture), group 2 (GCo, with grain without culture), group 3 (GoC, without grain with culture) and group 4 (GoCo, without grain and culture). The rations of the animals were formulated to meet the requirement for 500 g daily body weight gain (NRC 1989) Grain based concentrate mixture (groups GC and GCo) consisted of maize 30%, wheat bran 52%, groundnut cake 15%, mineral mixture 2% and salt 1% and grainless.