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24THE FEED ADDITIVES EFFECTIVENESS FOR THE FIRST-BORN COWS IN ORDER TO
PREVENT KETOSIS AND MASTITIS
Ovsiienko S.
Vinnytsia National Agrarian University, Associate Professor
Abstract
The article highlights the research results on the effectiveness of feed additives additionally introduced into the diets of heifers who were nine months pregnant and first-born cows up to 1.0 kg per head per day in the form of pellets to create conditions for physiological prevention of ketosis and mastitis. It was found that the level of ketone bodies did not exceed the reference value on the 21st day after calving and was by 21.8 and 20.2% lower in the second and third experimental groups compared with the control. In addition, the use of feed additives in the feeding of first-born cows prevent the development of ketosis in the body of first-born cows and udder pathology, i.e., mastitis.
The productive effect of dietary feed on milk synthesis for a period of 42 days in first-born cows, it was found that feeding feed additives had a positive effect on milk productivity, physical and chemical composition of milk.
Keywords: milk thistle, acanthus thistle, first-born cows, ketosis, mastitis, productivity.
Statement of the problem. Milk and dairy products are essential foods for the majority of the world's population. There has been a tendency to increase both the average milk yield per cow and the average herd size to meet the growing global demand for these products and maintain profitable dairy farming in recent decades [1].
The metabolic pathology is a significant obstacle to increasing animal productivity. Metabolic disorders lead to a resistance decrease, changes in the function of organs, systems and body of animals. As a result, both reduced milk productivity and body weight lead to significant economic losses in animal husbandry [2].
The increase in milk yield is the result of painstaking work on genetic selection, improved feeding and keeping conditions for cows. However, the incidence of animals is growing sharply. It is primarily a metabolic disorder directly related to the increase of carbohydrates and a decrease of fiber in the diet. The resulting excess amounts of incomplete oxidation of carbohydrates, in particular acetate, are converted into fatty acids, ultimately leading to fatty degeneration of liver hepatocytes. The gravy on the liver increases in such critical periods of animal life as pregnancy, calving and subsequent lactation. According to statistics, fatty infiltration of the liver after calving is observed in almost all cows. However, the activity of the tricarboxylic acid cycle decreases due to the lack of oxaloacetate when it is actively used in the hypertrophied system of gluco-neogenesis as a cause of energy lack in the cow's body in the post-calving period. This is the so-called negative energy balance. That's why, there is an active utilization of fats in the liver with the formation of a large number of ketone bodies (acetoacetate, hydroxybutyr-ate and acetone). These metabolic disorders lead to hepatosis, decreased immunity and the development of diseases such as mastitis, endometritis, disorders of phosphorus-calcium metabolism, hypocalcemia, and decreased levels of steroid hormones and fertility. The accepted term ketosis is rather simplified, it does not reproduce the full depth of the disorders that occur [3].
Analysis of recent studies and publications started solving the problem. Modern intensive dairy
system requires an increase in the average herd size by raising replacement heifers. Heifers' milk productivity after the first lactation is one of the conditions for the return of investment costs for the replacement heifers. Mastitis is one of the diseases that threatens their health and causes significant economic damage [1].
The early lactation period of first-born cows is characterized by a high incidence of mastitis. 33-75% of clinical mastitis cases of heifers and first-born cows are observed in a week before calving and 14 days after it. It is rarely caused by mammary gland infection after calving. The disease begins a few weeks earlier in about 60% of cases [4].
Inadequate feeding is one of the factors causing mastitis. Heifers losing weight have a high concentration of p-hydroxybutyrate. So, they have an increased risk of udder dropsy leading to mastitis [5].
Unfortunately, no mastitis prevention and control programs have been developed for heifers. A comprehensive strategy for the prevention and control of this disease should include an assessment of the existing management system and the application of appropriate measures at specific farms [6]. Strategies of the management system should be aimed at reducing the incidence of mastitis in heifers. Mastitis and ketosis of heifers is a polyetiological disease. That's why all aspects associated with this disease must be optimized.
The replacement young animals breeding should be purposeful and economical, taking into account the biological growth and development characteristics, the formation of a strong constitution, appropriate exterior and interior, good development of digestive organs, reproductive function, and long-term application of the animal. Each new generation of cows must be more productive and resistant to disease meeting the modern technology requirements.
It is known that the number of pregnant heifers in the herd should be kept at least 25%, and preferably 30% of the number of feed cows [7].
Raising young animals is a set of zootechnical measures aimed at the fuller realization of the hereditary traits of animals in the process of their growth and development [8].
According to L.V. Zborovskyi [9], neither a high level of breeding work, nor valuable breeders, nor strict selection will not give the desired effect if heifers are underdeveloped. Such animals don't have intensive milk production in the first days after calving.
The solution to the problem of optimal breeding of replacement young cattle is connected with the reduction of the duration of productive use of cows.
Thus, in the conditions of intensive dairy farming, the state of health of animals, their productivity and reproductive capacity depend on young animals keeping conditions. In general, the care of obtaining healthy, with a strong constitution, highly productive animals should begin when the fetus is in the womb [10].
Taking into account this preventive state of breeding and preparation of heifers for calving and obtaining from high quality dairy products, we will analyze the situation considering preventive and therapeutic properties of milk thistle and thistle acanthus for the production of fodder at a sufficient level to prevent the development of ketosis and mastitis of the udder of first-born cows.
Milk thistle is one of the most popular plant hepa-toprotectors. Silymarin is taken from its mature fruits, it is part of many drugs (Carsyl, Lehalon, Hepabene, etc.). They destroy toxic compounds coming from outside or those formed in the body, to as they penetrate hepatocytes, this substance can stimulate the synthesis of its own phospholipids, which repair cell membranes.
Experiments carried out with this substance have proved that silymarin can be used in combination therapy for poisoning by the pale toadstool. Clinical pharmacology of hepatoprotectors has collected data that milk thistle has an antioxidant effect, prevents the development of connective tissue in the liver, and has anti-inflammatory properties. The positive effect of the plant affects the liver and the entire gastrointestinal tract. Milk thistle should be used in powder form, as it works at the micro level, cleansing the liver cells [11].
Milk thistle (Carduus marianus L., genus Silybum Adans L., family Asteraceae) is a plant containing essential oils and flavonoids (silibin, silicocristine, silidi-amine), they have a powerful detoxifying, hepatopro-tective, antioxidant and anti-oxidant effect on humans. It contains alkaloids, saponins, oil oils (up to 32%), proteins, vitamin K, resins, mucus, tyramine, histamine, macro and micronutrients. The stems, leaves, roots and seeds of milk thistle have medicinal properties. Milk thistle is perfectly combined with various herbal fees and tinctures for the treatment of certain diseases [12].
All over the world the pharmaceutical companies in many countries produce a lot of effective drugs, i.e., Sylibor, Lehalon, Carsyl, Hepabene, Sylibinin, Sylima-ryn-Hexal, Sylehon, Heparsyl, Hepatofalk-plant, Levasyl, Sirepar, etc.; they are produced on the basis of milk thistle extracts [13]. The plant is successfully cultivated. It is found in small quantities in the wild in some regions of Ukraine. It should be noted that in the medicine of some countries plant raw materials phylo-genetically close to Carduus marianus L. species of the genus Carduus L. (thistle) are used as a hepatoprotec-tive agent [14].
The genus Carduus L. belongs the Asteraceae family. It includes 120 species of plants distributed in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Almost 30 species are grown in Ukraine. The most common species are thistle acanthus (Carduus acanthoides L.) and thistle (Carduus nutans L.). Plants grow in different regions on roadsides, fields, on dry hills, wastelands, pastures in littered areas [15]. Virtually unlimited biological raw material stock of Carduus acanthoides L., Carduus nu-tans L. is promising for procurement, production of modern medicines and medical applications in the form of galenic preparations [13].
Highly productive cows are especially demanding to the completeness of feeding and energy supply in the dry period and in the first 90-100 days of lactation. The first trimester of cows' lactation is fundamental for the current lactation, and the profitability of milk production. During this period, the level of energy supply of dairy cows is one of the main factors determining their productivity, they are also indicators of normal reproduction, i.e., fertility, regularity of sexual cycles etc. However, they can easily change under the influence of insufficient and excessive feeding [16].
If the feed cannot fully meet all high-yielding cows nutrient needs for milk production, lipids fat depots and muscle proteins accumulated by animals in the second half of lactation and especially in dry period are used for the formation of milk [17]. Abrupt mobilization of internal reserves from fat accumulation leads to increased gravy on the liver resulting in the use of preventive measures develops fatty liver syndrome that leads to ketosis, decreased productivity and often to death or culling of the cow in the first 40-60 days after calving [18]. Thus, although a significant number of publications have been devoted to the ketosis of high-yielding cows, further research on this issue is especially relevant in first-born cows with the simultaneous establishment of the effect of feed additives on mastitis prevention in the first trimester of lactation.
The aim of the research. The aim of the research was to develop feed additives for heifers and first-born cows, which were additionally introduced into their diet (1.0 kg per head per day) in the form of granules, to create conditions for physiological prevention of ketosis and mastitis, increasing feed intake, their productive action and long-term use of high-yielding cows in the herd with the exception environmental pollution.
Material and methods of research. The research involved 24 pregnant heifers, the concentration of ke-tone bodies in their blood was measured. The research was carried out according to generally accepted methods. Blood was collected on the sixth day after calving from the caudal vein, the concentration of ketone bodies in the blood was measured using the Optium Xceed glucometer and the Free Style Optium p-ketone test strip. The concentration of ketone bodies in the blood was not more than 1.0 mmol / l, it was taken as the reference rate.
Heifers were divided into three groups, each group included 8 heads, the first group was control, and the second and third groups were experimental. The control group received a general diet. The feed of the second and third groups included a feed additive made from
milk thistle and thistle acanthus hay flour, the heifers were fed for 42 days, i.e., three weeks before calving and for three weeks in the postpartum period.
Research results and their discussion. Manufactured feed additives included such ingredients as milk thistle hay flour, sugar beet molasses, the first additive also included saponite flour and acanthus thistle hay flour, sugar beet molasses, the second additive included saponite flour.
Dynamics of concentration of ketone
The dynamics of the ketone bodies concentration in the blood of firstborn cows is presented in Table 1; it shows that the additional consumption of feed additives prophylactically affect the metabolic processes in animals, in particular the concentration of ketone bodies (P-oxybutyric acid) did not exceed at 21 days after calving and was by 21.8 % and 20.2 % lower in the second and third experimental groups than in the control group with a deviation from 0.85 mmol / l to 1.45 mmol / l.
Table 1
bodies in the blood of first-born cows
Animal's group Concentration of ketone bodies, mmol / l 42nd day after calving to control group, %
a week before calving 6th day after calving 21st day after calving 42nd day after calving
I - control 1.13±0.052 1.28±0.154 1.19±0.112 1.13±0.065 -
II - experimental 0.88±0.067 0.91±0.055 0.93±0.039 0.94±0.02 118.1
III - experimental 0.86±0.052 0.89±0.043 0.95±0.025 0.92±0.02 120.6
This dependence was observed for three weeks with a lower level of ketone bodies by 18.1 and 20.6%, i.e., there is a prolonged effect of feed additives made from hay flour from milk thistle and thistle acanthoid on the content of P-oxybutyric acid in the body of firstborn cows.
The dietary feed productive effect on milk synthesis over a 42-day period in first-born cows showed that
the feeding of feed additives had a positive effect on milk productivity and physicochemical composition of milk (Table 2).
Milk yield was higher by 4.3% and amounted to 1125.6 kg for the first 42 days of cows' lactation in the second experimental group, 5.1% corresponding to 1134.0 kg the third experimental group, in the control group this indicator was 1079.4 kg.
Table 2
Dairy productivity of experimental cows for the first 42 days of lactation,
(M ± m; n = 8)
Indicator Group
I control II experimental III experimental
Milk yield of natural fat, kg 1,079.4±37.7 1,125.6±28.9 1,134.0±9.7
Average daily milk yield of natural fat content, kg 25.7 ± 0.89 26.8 ± 0.62 27.0±0.23
Content:
fat, % 3.75 ± 0.034 3.84 ± 0.037 3.86±0.046
protein, % 3.05 ± 0.045 3.08 ± 0.038 3.11±0.034
dry nonfat milk residue, % 8.6 ± 0.025 8.7 ± 0.018 8.75±0.018
Density, g / cm3 1.029 ± 0.0004 1.031 ±0.0009 1.033±0.0003
Average daily milk yield of basic fat content (3.4%), kg 28.4 ± 1.15 30.1 ± 0.81* 30.6±0.58*
Milk fat output: kg 40.5±1.67 43.2±1.28 43.8± 0.74
% 100 106.6 108.1
Feed costs per 1 kg of basic fat content milk, feed units 1.13 0.93 0.91
Note * P <0.05
The fat content of the experimental group milk was higher by 2.4% and 2.9%, and the average daily milk yield of one cow in terms of basic fat content of milk (3.4%) was higher by 2.0-2.3 kg, it is respectively 7.1-8.1% (P <0,05). The milk fat in the experimental group milk was higher by 2.7-3.3 kg, respectively, in the second and third experimental groups. The experimental cows' milk has the highest content of fat and protein. It is caused by feed additives, which led to more formation of LVH in the rumen as the main source of fat production, and better use of nitrogen in the diet.
In the experimental group the conversion of feed per unit of products was 0.93 -0.91 feed units vice versa 1.13 feed units in the control group of cows, it was 19.5% lower. According to the content of dry non-fat residue in milk, there is a tendency to its increase in experimental group. As a result, the milk density increased to 1.031-1.033 g / cm3.
The effect of feed additives on metabolic processes in the heifers' body and the content of ketone bodies in the antenatal and postpartum period have been researched, the mammary glands were also monitored. The research results are presented in Table 3.
Table 3
Indicators of experimental cows' mastitis (n = 8)
Cases of mastitis, heads
Group a week before 6th day after 21st day after 42nd day after 101st day after
calving calving calving calving calving
I - control - 2 2 1 2
II - experimental - - - 1 1
III - experimental - - - - -
The feed additives made from milk thistle and thistle acanthus hay flour have a positive effect on metabolic processes of cows and the mammary glands preventing the mastitis development. Mastitis was not observed in the experimental groups of cows until the 21st day. This disease of the mammary glands was observed in one cow in the second group on the 42nd and 101st day. However, mastitis appeared in seven cows of the control group, two animals were ill on the 42nd and 101st day of lactation again.
No cases of mastitis were detected in the group of cows fed by a feed additive based on thistle acanthus. Thus, it can be assumed that the use of feed additives as a prophylactic feed substance in the feeding of deep-calved heifers and first-born cows in the transit period of their content creates conditions for preventive effects of feed additives to prevent ketosis in cows.
Conclusions. 1. The use of feed additives in the feeding of heifers and first-born cows ensures the concentration of ketone bodies in their body at a physiologically acceptable level during the transit period and creates a prolonging effect on the level of p-oxybutyric acid in newborn cows during the first 100 days of lactation.
2. The milk of cows of II and III experimental groups has a higher fat and protein content by 2.4 and 2. 9%, the milk yield has a higher index by 7.1-8.1% and is 30.1-30.6 kg in cows of experimental groups, respectively.
3. It is necessary to use feed additives as a preventive feed substance made from milk thistle and thistle acanthus hay flour to ensure a positive effect on the mammary glands.
Prospects for further research. It is advisable to investigate the mechanism of feed additives based on milk thistle and thistle acanthus hay flour action on mastitis development in cows in the first third of lactation.
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