Performance, carcass characteristics and gain cost of feedlot cattle fed a high level of concentrate and different feed additives

Érico Rodrigues,Cristiana Andrighetto,André Mendes Jorge,Cyntia Ludovico Martins,Danilo Domingues Millen,Mário De Beni Arrigoni,Fernando Salvador Parra,Cláudia Regina Mendonça Andrade

doi:10.1590/s1516-35982013000100009

Érico Rodrigues, Cristiana Andrighetto + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s1516-35982013000100009

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of feeding cattle with isoprotein and isoenergetic diets, with and without the addition of polyclonal antibody preparation (PAP), yeasts (YST) or monensin sodium (MON) on performance, carcass characteristics and gain cost in feedlot. Ninety-five 20-month old bullocks (323.3±21.8 kg) were distributed in 25 pens. The completely randomized experimental design had a 2 × 2 + 1 factorial arrangement and the treatments were replicated 5 times. There was no effect of MON for DMI throughout the feedlot period; however, MON reduced the dry matter intake (DMI) in g/kg of BW in the first 28 days when compared with the other treatments. The gain cost decreased with MON addition in relation to the other treatments. Inclusion of YST decreased average daily gain (ADG), final body weight, hot carcass weight, carcass weight, gain to feed ratio and DMI in g/kg body weight, worsening feed conversion and increasing the gain cost in the feeding periods. Inclusion of PAP increased ADG and decreased the gain cost, besides improving feed conversion. For MON and PAP, a difference was found for kidney-pelvic fat and kidney-pelvic fat per 100 kg of hot carcass weight. For MON and YST, there was a difference in ADG, feed conversion, gain cost and carcass yield and kidney-pelvic fat per 100 kg of hot carcass. Treatment YST worsened performance in relation to the non-supplemented treatments. Feeding PAP to animals did not influence performance and carcass characteristics of bullocks in feedlot negatively. Thus, PAP shows potential to substitute MON in cattle feeding using isoprotein and isoenergetic diets.

Highlights

The utilization of additives in animal feeding is a way to increase production
Corresponding author: erzootec@gmail.com sodium on performance, carcass characteristics and cost per kilo gained in feedlot Nellore cattle fed high-concentrate diets
In the period from 8 to 84 days, the cattle fed monensin sodium presented lower intake (P

Summary

Introduction

Among the additives that improve digestion or the amount of available nutrients for adsorption by the gastrointestinal tract and ruminant performance, monensin sodium ionophores and Saccharomyces cerevisiae probiotics are the mostly used in ruminant diets and, promote better animal performance (Martin & Nisbet, 1992; Millen et al, 2009) Another way of managing ruminal fermentation and improving animal performance is immunization against lactic acid bacteria, which is very efficient to reduce the acidosis risks in cattle and sheep fed high-grain diets (Shu et al, 1999; Gill et al, 2000), Ikemori et al (1992) and Lee et al (2002) showed the potential of the immunization technique to favor the protection against specific pathogens. The immunization utilizing polyclonal antibody preparation (PAP) against Streptococcus bovis (PAP-SB) or Fusobacterium necrophorum (PAP-Fn) decreased the ruminal counting of target bacteria and increased ruminal pH of bullocks fed high-grain diets (DiLorenzo et al, 2006)

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