Vet World Vol.13 September-2020 Article-36
Research Article
Veterinary World, 13(9): 2006-2011
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.2006-2011
Influence of pre and postpartum alpha-tocopherol supplementation on milk yield, milk quality, and udder health of Jersey crossbred cows at tropical lower Gangetic region
2. Animal Nutrition Section, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Eastern Regional Station, Kalyani, West Bengal, India.
3. Animal Reproduction Section, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Eastern Regional Station, Kalyani, West Bengal, India.
Background and Aim: Alpha-tocopherol supplementation influences milk yield, milk quality, and udder health of dairy cows, which needs to be investigated for Jersey crossbred cows at hot-humid climate. Therefore, the present study was framed with an objective to study the effect of pre and postpartum Alpha-tocopherol supplementation on milk yield, milk quality, and udder health status of Jersey crossbred cows at tropical climate.
Materials and Methods: For this study, 19 similar parity, body condition score, and production level dairy animals were separated randomly into three groups, namely, Control, T1 and T2. Control group (no supplementation) was compared with two treatment groups, namely, T1 and T2. Supplementation of Alpha-tocopherol was done in concentrate fed to the animals (at 1 g/cow/day) 30 days prepartum to 30 days postpartum in T1 and 30 days prepartum to 60 days postpartum in T2 groups. Observations were taken for different parameters up to 5 months of lactation.
Results: Statistically analyzed data revealed that overall significantly (p<0.01) more milk production was found in T2, followed by T1 than the control group. Overall significantly (p<0.01) lower somatic cell counts and modified California mastitis tests were recorded in T2, followed by T1 than the control group. Overall significantly (p<0.01), better milk quality in terms of methylene blue reduction test was found in T2, followed by T1 than control groups. Differences in the milk composition of all three groups were non-significant (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Supplementation of Alpha-tocopherol during prepartum to initial lactation period may enhance milk yield, milk quality, and udder health status of Jersey crossbred cows at the tropical lower Gangetic region. Keywords: alpha-tocopherol, hot-humid region, jersey crossbred, milk production, udder health.
Keywords: alpha-tocopherol, hot-humid region, jersey crossbred, milk production, udder health.
How to cite this article: Singh AK, Bhakat C, Kumari T, Mandal DK, Chatterjee A, Karunakaran M, Dutta TK (2020) Influence of pre and postpartum alpha-tocopherol supplementation on milk yield, milk quality and udder health of Jersey crossbred cows at tropical lower Gangetic region, Veterinary World, 13(9): 2006-2011.
Received: 20-05-2020 Accepted: 28-08-2020 Published online: 26-09-2020
Corresponding author: Amit Kumar Singh E-mail: amitkumarsingh5496@gmail.com
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.2006-2011
Copyright: Singh, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.