Effect of Dietary Chromium Supplementation on Growth Performance, Rumen Fermentation Characteristics and Some Blood Serum Units of Fattening Dairy Calves under Heat Stress

• Published in: Pakistan journal of nutrition : PJN 2012, Vol.11 (9), p.849-854
• Main Authors: Soltan, M.A., Almujalli, A.M., Mandour, M.A., Abeer, M. El-Shinway
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1680-5194; 1994-7984
• DOI: 10.3923/pjn.2012.849.854

Twenty four fattening dairy calves were assigned to investigate the effect of dietary Chromium (Cr) supplementation (0 or 3 mg Cr/head/day from organic preparation) on the growth performance and rumen fermentation characteristics as well as on some blood serum parameters under heat stress (35-40 degree C). Chromium supplementation significantly (p less than or equal to 0.05) increased total feed intake across the whole experimental period by about 10% when compared with the control. Moreover chromium supplementation improve body weight at the end of the experiment, weight gain and feed conversion ratio across the whole experiment by about 7.5%, 13% and 2.7% respectively when compared with the control. Serum insulin concentration increased whereas cortisol concentration decreased, when compared with the control group. Also Cr supplementation showed a trend towards improving rumen fermentation characteristics. It could be concluded that dietary Cr supplementation at level of 6 mg/head/day may offer a potential protective management practice to lessen the effect of heat stress in fattening dairy calves.