Vol. 10, Special Issue 9 (2021)

Author(s):
Rishabh Chugh, Ram Dev Yadav, Madhu Mohini and Anubha Madhvi

Abstract:
The present study was conducted in Livestock Research Centre, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal Haryana to evaluate the effect of maternal supplementation of seaweed by products (SWBP) on the nutrient intake and digestibility in advanced pregnant Murrah buffaloes. Twelve Murrah buffaloes (~60d prepartum) were assigned to three groups (Control, T₁ and T₂) with 4 animals each. All the buffaloes were fed basal diet (wheat straw, green fodder and concentrate mixture) as per ICAR, 2013 requirements with additional supplementation of SWBP-1 (Kappaphycus alverazii and Gracilaria salicornia) in T₁ and SWBP-2 (Kappaphycus alverazii, Gracilaria salicornia and Turbinaria conoides) in T₂ at 2.5% of concentrate mixture. Supplementation period started from 60d prepartum and continued till calving. A digestibility trial of 7 days was also conducted. Proximate analysis of seaweeds showed that T. conoides had highest CP (%) (7.84) followed by K. alverazii (5.87) and G. salicornia (4.20). Highest TA (%) was found in G. salicornia (77.97) and in other two seaweeds the values were comparable. The results revealed that there was no significant (P>0.05) difference in DMI (kg/d), CPI (kg/d) and TDNI (kg/d) among the three groups. Digestibility of nutrients (%) was not affected due to supplementation of SWBP. From the present study it can be concluded that maternal supplementation of SWBP did not affect nutrient intake and digestibility in advanced pregnant Murrah buffaloes.