Effect of dietary concentrate level on body immune response in calves fed a wheat straw-based diet

Abstract

Twenty 9-month-old crossbred calves were divided into 2 equal groups (A and B; n = 10). The feeding trial was conducted for 119 days to study the effect of concentrate supplementation on body immune response and blood metabolites in calves. The concentrate and roughage (wheat straw) ratio in the diet of Groups A and B was 60:40 and 30:70, respectively. Daily dry matter intake was significantly (P < 0.01) higher in Group A than in Group B, which also resulted in significantly higher (P < 0.01) total body weight gain in the former group. Protein, albumin, globulin, total and differential leukocyte count in blood were similar in the 2 groups but blood glucose level was higher (P < 0.05) in the calves of Group A. There was no difference in body immune response between the groups, which indicated that body immune response of animals is not significantly influenced by restricted concentrate feeding.