Efficacy of oral probiotics on morphometric measurements and their allometric relationships in Asian elephants

Abstract

An experiment was undertaken on 18 Asian elephants to study the effect of oral probiotics on body measurements for two months. Simultaneously, the efficacy of existing prediction equations and allometric relationship of heart girth-body weight (BW), height-forefoot circumference (FFC) and height-body weight were also observed. The animals were divided into three groups, with six each. The experimental probiotics; Lactobacillus acidophilus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were supplemented @ 1 gm 1 × 109 cfu/gm for every 50 kg BW/day to the elephants of LACTO (T2) and SAC (T3) groups, respectively, whereas no probiotic was given to the control group. Heart girth was measured four times, on days 0, 20, 50 and 60 of the experiment to determine BW. Other morphometric estimations, like length, height, hind girth, and FFC were documented once, at the end of study. The data of heart girth and body weight revealed non-significant effect of the treatment. Irrespective of probiotics treatment, allometric parameters such as heart girth-body weight and height-FFC showed an isometric relationship whereas, the height-body weight relationship wasn’t found to yield an equivalent accuracy. The equations involving heart girth and FFC were observed to be most authentic to calculate BW and height, respectively.