ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2018, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (3): 620-628.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2018.03.020

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Chinese Medicine Prescriptions on Production Performance, Physiological and Biochemical Indexes of Beef Cattle under Heat Stress

ZHANG Xin-yu1, LIU Bo1, LUO Jun-rong1, XU Yang1, SHANG Han-le1, YANG Shi-tang2, SONG Xiao-zhen1*   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition of Jiangxi Province, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China;
    2. Yufeng Agricultural and Livestock Co., Ltd., Yichun 330800, China
  • Received:2017-08-17 Online:2018-03-23 Published:2018-03-23

Abstract:

The study aimed to investigate the effects of Chinese medicine prescriptions on production performance, physiological and biochemical indexes of beef cattle under heat stress. Eighteen healthy uncastrated beef cattle with 22 month old and initial body weight of (433.41±15.10) kg were randomly allotted into 3 groups.One group was the control group and the other two groups were the treatment groups. There were 6 cattle in each group. The experiment was designed by single factor random arrangement. The cattle in the control group were fed the basal diet. And the cattle in the two treatment groups were fed the basal diets with Chinese medicine prescription Ⅰ (strengthening the spleen group, SS) and prescription Ⅱ (clearing heat group, CH) supplied with 100 g per day per cattle, respectively. All cattle were fed under high temperature and humidity in summer of south in China. The duration of preliminary experiment was 10 days and the duration of the formal experiment was 60 days. Feed intake was recorded everyday, the body temperature and respiratory rate were determined at 1, 20, 40 and 60 d, and serum samples were collected for detecting biochemical indexes at the end of the experiment. The results showed that:1) The body temperature of individuals in SS group significantly decreased on day 40 and 60 (P<0.05), and body temperature of individuals in CH group significantly decreased on day 20 and 60 (P<0.05) compared with control group. The respiratory rate of individuals in SS and CH groups significantly reduced on day 20 and 40 compared with control group (P<0.05). 2) On day 60, the content of serum total protein, albumin, triglyceride of individuals in SS group significantly increased, but their total cholesterol levels significantly decreased compared with control group (P<0.05). Moreover, serum triglyceride levels of individuals in the CH group were lower but their total cholesterol levels were higher than those in the SS group (P<0.05). 3) Compared with control group, the levels of serum insulin and adiponectin of individuals in the SS group significantly increased (P<0.05), but serum insulin and growth hormone levels of individuals in the CH group significantly decreased (P<0.05), and the thyroid hormone (T3 and T4) levels of individuals in CH group significantly increased(P<0.05). The levels of serum insulin, growth hormone and adiponectin of individuals in the CH group were lower but the thyroid hormone (T3 and T4) were higher than those in the SS group (P<0.05). 4) The average daily feed intake (ADFI) and the average daily gain (ADG) of beef cattle in the SS group significantly decreased (P<0.05), but the F:G ratio significantly increased compared with control group (P<0.05). The present results suggested that dietary supplemented with two Chinese medicine prescriptions could alleviate the heat stress response of beef cattle, and dietary supplemented with the SS promoted the synthesis and metabolism of fat, but had a negative impact on the beef cattle production performance.

CLC Number: