1Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Jabalpur, Nanajee Deshmukh Veterinary Science University, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh-482001, India
2Department of Veterinary Microbiology, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Jabalpur, Nanajee Deshmukh Veterinary Science University, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh-482001, India
3College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Jabalpur, Nanajee Deshmukh Veterinary Science University, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh-482001, India
*Corresponding author email id: nayakanju@rediffmail.com
This study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of supplemental zinc (Zn) immune response in growing goats. Twenty-four healthy goat kids were randomly divided into four groups of six kids each. Kids were fed basal ration consisted of concentrate feed mixture and green berseem to meet the nutrient requirements of goats (NRC, 1981). Kids in the group one were fed basal diet which contains 33.02 mg/kg dry mater (DM) zinc from ingredient of ration without any Zn supplement in their minerals mixture. Kids in the two, three and four groups were fed the same basal diet of group one with additive 20, 50 and 100 ppm Zn (as ZnSO4) in their diets, respectively. Amounts of 50 and 100 mg Zn/kg DM have significantly higher humoral immune response at all the three intervals. Skin-fold thickness was significantly higher at 24-h post-inoculation indicating improved cellular immunity with 50 and 100 mg Zn/kg DM. The results showed that a diet containing 83.02 mg Zn/kg DM was adequate to support better cellular and humoral immune response in growing goats.
Zinc supplementation, Humoral immune response, Cellular immune response, Goat, Phytohaemagglutinin-P, Chicken red blood cells, Small ruminant
