Year: 2021 | Month: December | Volume 11 | Issue 6
Raw Milk Quality and Udder Health Status of Lactating Crossbred Sahiwal Cows Supplemented with β-carotene Enriched Mineral-Vitamin Premix
Vinod Bhateshwar
Dinesh Chandra Rai
Raj Kumar Duary
Mahesh Datt
Hitesh Muwal
DOI:10.30954/2277-940X.06.2021.22
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of supplemented β-carotene enriched mineral-vitamin premix on lactating crossbred Sahiwal cows and analyzing the raw milk quality and udder health of the animals. Twenty-four disease-free lactating crossbred Sahiwal cows with a close date of calving were randomly divided into two equal groups as Control group (CONT; n = 12) and Beta-carotene group: 500 mg/cow/d (BETA; n = 12). These were animals from 7 days post-partum (dpp) until 105 dpp, and thereafter the raw milk quality and udder health status of these animals were determined. Statistical analysis of the data regarding post-partum udder health status fortnightly from 45 to 105 days of the experimental period was observed (P<0.001). Lower somatic cell counts in raw milk of 12.50 to 10.02 Log104 cells/ml were observed in BETA-group cows when compared with CONT-group cows with 12.69 to 13.17 Log104 cells/ml. The Modified California Mastitis tests from 45 to 105 dpp were lower in the BETA-group cows (2.27 to 1.35) than in the CONT-group cows (3.59 to 3.96). The post-partum methylene blue dye reduction test from 45 to 105 dpp indicated (P<0.001) that raw milk quality was significantly higher in BETA-group cows (107.96 to 139.89 in minutes) than in CONT-group cows (90.81 to 80.78 in minutes) throughout the post-partum period. This study revealed that orally supplementing crossbred Sahiwal cows with β-carotene improved their raw milk quality and udder health.
Highlights
- β-carotene supplemented cows exhibited lower raw milk somatic cell counts.
- Subclinical mastitis was less common in β-carotene supplemented cows.
- β-carotene supplemented cows showed superior raw milk quality.
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