Salt tolerance threshold and physiological responses in Bach Thao goats drinking diluted seawater under tropical conditions

Vet World Vol.16 August-2023 Article-19

Research Article

Veterinary World, 16(8): 1714-1720

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.1714-1720

Thiet Nguyen¹, Khang Van Truong¹, Ngu Trong Nguyen², and Sumpun Thammacharoen³

1. Department of Agricultural Technology, College of Rural Development, Can Tho University, 3/2 Street, Can Tho city 94000, Vietnam.
2. Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Can Tho University, 3/2 Street, Can Tho city 94000, Vietnam.
3. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, HenriDunang Street, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.

Background and Aim: Climate change challenges with incremental sea level cause saltwater intrusion, which has affected the quality of freshwater and groundwater in coastal provinces, particularly the Mekong River Delta provinces of Vietnam. Interestingly, Bach Thao goats are predominant in this area and well adapted to saline water under tropical conditions. Therefore, this study investigated the salt tolerance threshold of Bach Thao goats drinking diluted seawater (DSW).

Materials and Methods: The experiment was performed using seven Bach Thao male goats (20.60 ± 1.12 kg) and divided into two phases. In Phase 1 (control, C), all goats were provided fresh water (FW) for 7 days from two identical buckets, and daily water intake (WI) was recorded from both buckets. In Phase 2 (preference test, PT), each goat was provided FW from the first bucket and DSW from the second bucket or vice versa. The concentration of DSW for the preference test was 0.5%-2.0%.

Results: Body weight and dry matter intake showed no differences according to DSW consumption; however, WI was significantly lower during Phase 2 (p < 0.05), which was due to the lower WI with 1.5% and 2% of DSW (p < 0.05). Goats showed a similar preference for fluid intake between FW and DSW at 0.0%–1.0% levels and began avoiding DSW at 1.5% and rejected at 2.0% of DSW. Goats consuming 1.5% of DSW showed increased respiration rate from 13:00 to 19:00 h and rectal temperature at 13:00 h (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Goats can tolerate up to 1.0% of DSW. Shifting to FW activated aversive drinking to 1.5% and 2.0% of DSW. This behavioral response was prominent at 0.5% DSW. Moreover, goats that drank 1.5% of DSW had decreased thermoregulation. Keywords: body weight, climate change, freshwater, salt tolerance.

Keywords: body weight, climate change, freshwater, salt tolerance.

How to cite this article: Nguyen T, Truong KV, Nguyen NT, and Thammacharoen S (2023) Salt tolerance threshold and physiological responses in Bach Thao goats drinking diluted seawater under tropical conditions, Veterinary World, 16(8): 1714-1720.

Received: 24-04-2023 Accepted: 21-07-2023 Published online: 24-08-2023

Corresponding author: Sumpun Thammacharoen E-mail: sprueksagorn@hotmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.1714-1720

Copyright: Nguyen, 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.