Effect of dietary sorbitol supplementation on performance of crossbred dairy cattle during winter season in Jammu

The effect of sorbitol supplementation on physiological, hemato-biochemical and milk production parameters was studied for a period of 12 weeks during winter on 12 crossbred dairy cattle, aged 4–5 years, average body weight 420–500 Kg and producing 10–15 kg of milk/day. The animals were randomly divided into two groups (T₁ and T₂) of six each. The T₁ group served as control and T₂ group was supplemented with sorbitol @100gm/animal/day. During the experiment, the minimum temperature, maximum temperature, wind velocity, Wind Chill Temperature (WCT) and Relative Humidity (RH) ranged from 8.00±0.44 to 15.29±0.42°C; 20.43±0.87 to 25.00±0.49°C, 2.42±0.37 to 4.48±0.77 km/hr, 5.67±0.51 to 13.68±0.62°C and 79.14±2.40 to 88.43±1.78%, respectively. Dietary supplementation of sorbitol significantly (P<0.05) increased the rectal temperature (°C) of T₂ (36.12±0.04, 38.03±0.11) over T₁ (35.86±0.04, 37.73±0.12) both at 6: 00 hrs and 14: 00 hrs. Glucose level (mg/dl) was significantly (P<0.05) higher in T₂ (69.60±0.38) than T₁ (68.07±0.20). Significantly (P<0.05) higher milk yield (Kg) was recorded in T₂ (9.60±0.28) than T₁ (8.31±0.27). The respiration rate, pulse rate, hemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), dry matter intake (DMI), water intake (WI), rumination number (R. No) did not differ significantly between T₁ and T₂. Thus it is concluded that, dietary supplementation of sorbitol to crossbred dairy cattle during winter has beneficial effect on increasing the rectal temperature, blood glucose level and milk production.