Nutritional Evaluation of Seaweed on Nutrient Digestibility, Nitrogen Balance, Milk Production and Composition in Sahiwal Cows

Abstract

Twelve lactating Sahiwal cows were divided into three equal groups on the basis of milk yield (mean 8.39 L/day), parity and body weight. All the animals were fed concentrate mixture along with wheat straw and green oats (Concentrate mixture and roughages as 50:50; green oat and wheat straw as 60:40) as total mixed ration for 126 days. While group T1 was fed ration consisting of concentrate mixture without any additional mineral mixture and common salt, group T2 had 2 % mineral mixture and 1 % salt in their concentrate mixture and group T3 had 20 % seaweed (Sargassum wightii) in their concentrate mixture without additional mineral mixture and salt. A metabolism trial of 7 days collection period was conducted on all the experimental animals after 56 days of experiment. The results showed that there were no significant changes in nutrient intake and digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, crude fibre and ether extract. Similarly, there were no significant changes in milk composition (protein, fat, lactose, solid-not-fat) in different treatment groups. However, seaweed supplemented group had significantly (P \ 0.05) higher milk yield and 4 % fat corrected milk yield than the other groups. Thus, incorporation of brown seaweed in the diet of lactating Sahiwal cows to the extent of 20 % in concentrate mixture increased their milk yield.

Effect of macroalgae and yeast culture on body performance, blood metabolites, ruminal fermentation and digestibility coefficients of Ossimi lambs

“…In contrast our results, some studies found no effect by adding seaweeds on any digestion coefficient i.e. Singh et al (2017) found no effect of macroalgae (Sargassum wightii) on digestion coefficient of Sahiwal cows. Also, Zhou et al (2018) found that brown seaweed had no effect on the digestibility coefficients of various nutrients in ram.…”

“…They are also rich source of other minerals like sodium, potassium, magnesium, chlorine, sulfur, phosphorus, iodine, iron, zinc, copper, selenium and molybdenum (Archer et al, 2008;Holdt and Kraan, 2011;Rey-Crespo et al, 2014;Ventura and Castañón, 1998). High mineral content makes it a potential additive to animal feedstuffs for replacing a part or whole of the mineral supplementation (Singh et al, 2017). Macroalgae have anti-bacterial, anti-viral, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties that enhance animal health and function (Bach et al, 2008) because, they contain many biologically active compounds such as fucoidan, betaine, and glucans (Archer et al, 2008;Holdt and Kraan, 2011), which enhance animal's immunity and carcass quality (Singh et al, 2017).…”

“…High mineral content makes it a potential additive to animal feedstuffs for replacing a part or whole of the mineral supplementation (Singh et al, 2017). Macroalgae have anti-bacterial, anti-viral, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties that enhance animal health and function (Bach et al, 2008) because, they contain many biologically active compounds such as fucoidan, betaine, and glucans (Archer et al, 2008;Holdt and Kraan, 2011), which enhance animal's immunity and carcass quality (Singh et al, 2017). Yeast culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) one of the most common probiotics in ruminants (Raghebian et al, 2016).…”

Effect of Dietary Seaweed Supplementation in Cows on Milk Macrominerals, Trace Elements and Heavy Metal Concentrations

“…Given that main drivers for productivity, production efficiency and milk composition are animal breed, intakes, and types of forages and concentrates [ 53 , 54 ], it is likely that the relatively small amount of seaweed supplementation to dairy cow diets (0 to 158 g/cow/day) in the present study was not adequate to cause any impact on these parameters. In contrast, Singh et al [ 55 ] reported that S. wightii supplementation at 20% to concentrate DM showed increased milk production in dairy cows. This discrepancy could be attributed to the much larger degree of supplementation as they administered approximately 955 g of seaweed per cow per day and indicated that there might be unidentified bioactive substances within the seaweed that may have positively affected milk yield at such high supplementation rates.…”

Effect of supplementation of Kappaphycus alvarezii based seaweed product on rumen fermentation parameters under in vitro conditions

“…Addition of sea seaweeds showed inhibitory effect on rumen fermentation resulting in decreased total gas Table 3 Effect of supplementation of graded levels of sea weed product on digestibility, microbial biomass and energy value under in vitro conditions TDMD: true dry matter digestibility, TOMD: true organic matter digestibility, ME: metabolisable energy, MBP: microbial biomass production production, methane production and volatile fatty acids production under in vitro conditions (Machado et al 2014). There were no significant changes in digestibility of nutrients in Sahiwal cows when mineral mixture (3%) in the concentrate was replaced by 20% Sargassum wightii (Singh et al 2015).…”