Blood Profile of Friesian X Bunaji Dairy Calves Fed Diets Containing Different Ratios of Soymilk

Gadzama, I. U.^1*, Yashim, S. M.², Abdu, S. B.² & Ndudim, R. K.³

¹National Animal Production Research Institute, Shika-Zaria, Nigeria
²Department of Animal Science, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
³Department of Biological Science, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

Gadzama, I. U., National Animal Production Research Institute, Shika-Zaria, Nigeria.

Keywords: Blood Profile; Friesian-Bunaji; Soymilk; Dairy; Calves

Abstract

Blood is particularly sensitive to changes in nutrition and environmental temperature. The study investigates the response of dairy calves to soymilk as replacement for cow milk. Soybean was sourced, cleaned and soaked in clean water for 72 hours. The water was changed twice after every 24 hours of soaking. Thereafter, the soybean was rinsed, sun-dried for 8 days, milled, sieved and then taken to the laboratory for chemical analyses. Results showed that the soymilk contained 87.11% moisture, 12.89% total solid (TS), 3.30?t, 9.59% solid-non-fat (SNF), 5.55% protein and 0.82% ash. While the milk obtained from Friesian x Bunaji cows had moisture, TS, fat, SNF, protein and ash contents of 88.30%, 11.70%, 2.69%, 9.01%, 3.29% and 0.67%, respectively. The protein content of the different ratios of soy: cow milk diets increased with increased levels of soymilk and varies from 3.29% in 0:100 to 5.23% in 75:25 ratio of soy: cow milk. The TS, fat, SNF and ash contents also followed similar pattern. Sixteen Friesian x Bunaji dairy calves with body weight of 34.8±0.7kg were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments (which consisted of 0:100, 25:75, 50:50 and 75:25 ratios of soy: cow milk) with four calves per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design. Each calf received two litres of the mixture of soy: cow milk daily. Digitaria smutsii hay and clean drinking water were provided to the calves’ ad libitum. Results showed significant (P<0.05) difference in packed cell volume (PCV) across the treatments. Calves fed 75:25 ratio of soy: cow milk had higher (19.53) PCV percentage compared with those on the control diet which had the lowest (15.01%). While for white blood cell (WBC) calves fed diets containing 75:25 and 50:50 ratios of soy: cow milk had higher (11.65 and 12.46x109/l) WBC compared with those on 0:100 and 25:75 which had lower (10.28 and 10.66 x109/l) WBC values, respectively. Haemoglobin concentration also followed similar pattern. Serum total protein was significantly (P<0.05) higher (6.32g/dl) in calves fed 75:25 ratio of soy: cow milk though not statistically different from calves fed 50:50 (6.28g/dl) and 0:100 (6.1228g/dl). The lowest serum protein (5.51g/dl) was observed in calves fed 25:75 ratio of soy: cow milk. Albumin, glucose and creatinine also followed similar pattern. But the amount of globulin was significantly (P<0.05) higher (2.44g/dl) in calves fed 0:100 ratio of soy: cow milk (the control) compared with calves on the other treatments. Calves fed 50:50 ratio of soy: cow milk had the highest (9.79mg/dl) blood urea nitrogen (BUN) compared with calves on 25:75, which had the lowest (7.13mg/ dl) concentration of BUN but statistically similar to those on 0:100 (7.60mg/dl). All the blood parameters measured were within the normal range for healthy calves. Therefore, it was concluded that soymilk can be used to replace cow milk in the diet of calf up to 75% inclusion level without any detrimental effect on health status of the animals.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).