Effects of short-term supplementation of clinoptilolite in colostrum and milk on hematology, serum proteins, performance, and health in neonatal dairy calves

Abstract

In recent years, the use of both natural and synthetic zeolites in animal nutrition has increased, mainly to improve their performance, health, and to protect against mycotoxins intoxication. Thirty calves were used in the present study for the determination of the effects of clinoptilolite supplementation on hematology, serum proteins, performance, and health. The animals were divided equally into three groups (control, test 1 and test 2). The three groups of calves were homogeneous for parity of dams, sex, and month of birth. For test 1 group, clinoptilolite in the concentration of 2% of each colostrum meal was added for 48h and for test 2 group, clinoptilolite in the concentration of 2% was added to each colostrum and milk meal for 14 days. Blood samples were taken from all calves 12h after birth and at the end of the first, second, third, forth, fifth and sixth weeks of life (end of the experiment: 42 days of life) and analyzed for hematology, plasma fibrinogen and for total protein, albumin, beta and gamma globulin measurement. Performance and health of calves were also recorded during the experiment. For statistical analysis of data a repeated measures approach using ANOVA with Mixed linear models, and χ-test was used. Clinoptilolite supplementation had significant effect on the values of hematocrit (HCT), red cell count (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), monocyte (Mono), and albumin (Alb). The values of most above parameters were significantly higher in test group 2, except MCV that was significantly lower in test group 1 than other trial groups (p<0.05). No significant difference was seen for other measured parameters, performance, and health between trial groups.