Effect of Herbal Feed Additives and Sulfate Supplementation on Hematology, Biochemical and Antioxidant Status of Calves

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of herbal feed additives and sulfate supplementation on the hematology, biochemical, antioxidant status and immune response of growing cattle calves. Twenty-four growing cattle calves (12 male Haryana, 8 male Sahiwal, 4 female Sahiwal calves) of 4 to 16 months of age were distributed into four groups with six animals each in a randomized block design. Control (C) group was fed on basal diet without any feed additive, T1 group was fed on basal diet with herbal feed additive (Fennel seed + Clove oleoresin; CLO; @ 1.0% of DMI), T2 group was supplemented with sulfate @ 0.075% of DMI, and group T3 was fed on basal diet with herbal feed additive (Fennel seed + Clove Oleoresin (CLO); @ 1.0% of DMI) and sulfate @ 0.075% of DMI. The basal diet consists of 40% concentrate and 60% wheat straw. Body weight and dry matter intake were recorded fortnightly. Overall body weight, DMI (kg/day), TDN intake (g/kg W^0.75), and DCP intake (g/kg W^0.75) were similar in the treatment as well as control group. Hematological parameters like blood hemoglobin concentration and PCV were not impacted by herbal feed additive and sulfate supplementation. Plasmaglucose, triacylglycerol, and cholesterol concentration were found non-significant (P>0.05), plasma total protein, Plasma albumin, plasma globulin and PUN concentration were also not affected (P>0.05). Alanine amino transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), plasma bilirubin, plasma creatinine were found normal in range and not significantly different (P>0.05) between the groups. Total immunoglobulin level and antioxidant activity remain similar in all the groups (P>0.05).It may be concluded that supplementation of herbal feed additive (Fennel seed + CLO; @ 1.0% of DMI) may be used as rumen modifiers without any adverse effect in the calves.