Effect of feeding various sources of zinc on nutrient digestibility and rumen parameters of male crossbred calves Kachhadia L.V.1, Katole S.B.*, Pandya P.R., Sorathiya K.K. Animal Nutrition Research Department, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Anand Agricultural University, Anand - 388 110 (Gujarat) 1Senior Executive, Sumul Dairy, Surat, Gujarat *Correspondence: shrikant@aau.in
Online published on 20 May, 2023. Abstract This study was conducted to investigate the effect of replacing inorganic zinc with lower level of organic and nanozinc on digestibility of nutrients and rumen parameters of growing crossbred calves. For this experiment, 15 male crossbred calves weighing 93.3±3.19 kg (8–10 months) were divided into three groups consisting of five animals in each. TMR having 50:50 roughage to concentrate ratiowith 2 kg of green fodder was provided to animals as a basal diet. Along with basal diet experimental groups were provided with additional Zn sources i.e., ZnSO4 (@40 ppm) in T1, Zn-glycinate (@20 ppm) in T2 and nano ZnO (@10 ppm) in T3 as a toppings over the TMR, for the period of 98 days.Zn content in basal diet and green fodder was 58.6 and 40.5 ppm, respectively.Digestibility of nutrients like DM, OM, CP, EE, CF, NFE, NDF and ADF was comparable (P>0.05) among the groups. Various rumen parameters like ruminal pH, TVFA, ammonia-N, total-N, non-protein and soluble nitrogen concentration was also comparable (P>0.05) among the groups..It may be concluded that, supplementation of nanoZnO (@10 ppm), Znglycinate (@20 ppm) and ZnSO4 (@40 ppm) gave comparable (P>0.05) results in terms of nutrient digestibility and rumen parameters on growing crossbred calves without any adverse effect. Top Keywords Crossbred calves, Digestibility, Nano Zn, Rumen parameters. Top |