Effect of weaning age on health of Murrah buffalo calves
2015
BHARTI, P K | DUTT, TRIVENI | PANDEY, H O | PATEL, B H M | MAHENDRAN, K | KASWAN, S | BISWAS, PROBHAKAR | UPADHYAY, V K
The present study was conducted to compare the effect of different age at weaning on health performance of Murrah buffalo calves. Buffalo calves (35) were randomly but alternately assigned into 3 groups as group 1, suckling (14); group 2, weaning of calves at birth (11) and group 3, weaning of calves at 45th day of birth (10). Health parameters of calves and faecal consistency scores were recorded from day of birth to 3 months of age. Immunity of calves was assessed through estimation of serum immunoglobulin by zinc sulphate turbidity test using standards. The occurrence and duration of illness of each calf under different groups were random and common ailments were diarrhoea and alopecia among the groups. The faecal consistency score of calves weaned at birth (1.28±0.02) was significantly higher than suckling (1.34±0.01) but nonsignificant from calves weaned at 45th day of age (1.33±0.02). Total serum immunoglobulin levels of calves had decreasing trends with advancement of age after colostum feeding except at few stages of sampling in weaning at birth. From the present study, it was concluded that weaning did not affect the health and immunity levels of buffalo calves as compared with natural suckling.
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