Early weaning promotes improvement of blood nutritional indicators in half-bred zebu cows

摘要

nbsp;Bloodnutritionalindicatorsweremeasuredinhalf-bredzebucowsthatsuckledtheircalvesthroughoutlactation(control;n=30)oruntil60to75dayswhentheirnbsp;calveswereweaned(EW:n=30).nbsp;Measurementsofliveweight,nbsp;evaluationofbodyconditionscore(BCS),andbloodcollectionbeganonday0(=datecalvesfromEWcowswereweaned)andthenondays7,14,21,30,60and90.Attheendof90days,BCSandliveweightweresignificantlyhigherinEWthaninthecontrolcows(5.4±1.0and407±42.5kgversus4.0±0.9and388±39.1kg).EWhadhigherbloodconcentration(p0.05)ofalbumin(3.43±0.22versus2.92±0.11g/dl),urea(0.37±0.09versus0.19±0.06g/l),hemoglobin(13.5±0.44versus11.4±0.37g/dl),iron(98.8±21.5versus74.7±11.8micro;g/dl)andcopper(60.3±8.8versus47.7±9.2micro;g/dl).Serumglucoselevelsdidnotdifferbetweenthetwogroups.Treatmenteffectsonliveweight,BCSandbloodhemoglobinweresignificantafterday30,andontheremainingserumnutritionalindicatorsafterday21.Inlinewithexpectations,nbsp;cowswhosecalveswereweanedearlyshowedsuperiornutritionalstatuscomparedwiththosethatcontinuedtosuckletheircalves.