Supplementing mineral selenium and vitamin e in diets on in vivo digestibility, blood glucose, and urea levels of cows

Abstract

In such condition as of mating, pregnant and delivering calves, cows were often having deficiency in micro minerals, causing their reproductive functions to be less than optimal. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of Selenium and Vitamin E (SeVE) addition in diets on in vivo digestibility, blood glucose and urea levels. A total of 30 Ongole Crossbred cows (I3-I4 Aged, Body Weight 423.8 ? 75.0 kg, and Body Condition Score 3.1 ? 0.2) were used in this experiment. The study was conducted for 13 weeks. Animals were prepared to be inseminated by the Belgian Blue straws. They were kept in individual cages and were divided into two treatments, namely (P0) = basal diets and (P1) = basal diets + SeVE. The diets given were elephant grass and concentrate (3% of body weight). The results showed that addition SeVE increased digestibility of organic matter and crude protein, increased blood Se and urea levels, but did not show significant effect on blood glucose levels. In subsequent observations, SeVE addition turned out to have a positive effect on the incidence of pregnancy.