ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2010, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (10): 1260-1267.doi:

• 动物营养 • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of Chinese Medicine Prescription on Beef Cattle in Summer: Ⅰ. Finishing Performance, Physiological Parameters, Serum Hormone Level and Enzymatic Activity

WANG Wen-juan1, WANG Shui-ping1, 2*, ZUO Fu-yuan1, ZHOU Pei1, ZHAO Jian-jun1, ZHANG Jia-hua2   

  1. 1. Rongchang Campus, Southwest University, Chongqing 402460, China; 2. Chongqing Key Laboratory of Forage & Herbivore, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China
  • Received:1900-01-01 Revised:1900-01-01 Online:2010-10-25 Published:2010-10-25

Abstract: The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of Chinese medicine prescription on the finishing performance, physiological parameters, serum hormone level and enzymatic activity of the beef cattle in the natural environment of heat stress. Eighteen healthy cattle with the similar age, conformation and weight (about 300 kg) which crossbred by Simmental bull and native cow had were randomly allotted into three groups. One group was the control group and the rest were the treating groups. There were six cattle in each group with six replicates and one cattle per replicate. 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 treating groups were fed the basal diets with different Chinese medicine prescriptions supplied with 0.2 kg per day per cattle, such as prescriptionⅠand prescriptionⅡ, which composed of Herba Agastachis, Rhizoma Atractylodis, Cortex Phellodendri and Gypsum Fibrosunm with different proportions, as a kind of concentrate additive, respectively. The heat stress of the cattle could be caused by the moist heat environment in the Three-gorge Reservoir District in summer. The start-stop time of the experiment were from 1 July to 8 September in 2009. The duration of the preliminary experiment was 10 d and the duration of the formal experiment was 59 d. The results showed that the experimental cattle survived in the condition of the moderate heat stress and suffered the feeding environment of high humidity and high temperature the temperature humidity index in the experimental period was 84.01 averagely; every prescription could protect the experimental cattle from the hazard of heat stress by improving the finishing performance, decreasing breathing frequency and mean body temperature; every prescription could decrease the blood serum concentrations of adrenocorticotropic hormore, aldosterone, corticosteroid and glucagon, and increase that of growth hormone, insulin, thyroid stimulating hormone, triiodothyronine and tetraiodothyronine; every prescription could increase the blood serum activity of alkaline phosphatase and α-amylase, and decrease that of glutamate-pyruvate and glutamicoxaloacetic transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase; in conclusion, the applied efficacy of the prescriptionⅠwas better than that of the prescriptionⅡwhen these prescriptions as a kind of feed additive prevented the heat stress.