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Average Daily Gain and Energy and Nitrogen Requirements of 4-Month-Old Female Yak Calves

There is little information available on milk intake and energy and nitrogen requirements of growing yak calves. This study aimed to fill this important gap, as this information could be beneficial in designing a system to wean yak calves earlier than in natural time. We determined the average daily...

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Autores principales: Bai, Binqiang, Degen, A. Allan, Han, Xiaodong, Hao, Lizhuang, Huang, Yayu, Niu, Jianzhang, Liu, Shujie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9325412/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35903137
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.906440
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author Bai, Binqiang
Degen, A. Allan
Han, Xiaodong
Hao, Lizhuang
Huang, Yayu
Niu, Jianzhang
Liu, Shujie
author_facet Bai, Binqiang
Degen, A. Allan
Han, Xiaodong
Hao, Lizhuang
Huang, Yayu
Niu, Jianzhang
Liu, Shujie
author_sort Bai, Binqiang
collection PubMed
description There is little information available on milk intake and energy and nitrogen requirements of growing yak calves. This study aimed to fill this important gap, as this information could be beneficial in designing a system to wean yak calves earlier than in natural time. We determined the average daily gain and energy and nitrogen balances and requirements of 4-month-old female yak calves (48.8 ± 2.45 kg, n = 8). The calves were allowed to suck once a day and were fed an ad libitum concentrate: hay diet at a ratio of 60:40. Milk intake averaged 540 ± 26 g/d, yielding 2.28 ± 0.112 MJ/d, which was 13% of the gross energy intake (GEI). The digestible energy intake (DEI):GEI ratio was 0.681, metabolizable energy intake (MEI):DEI was 0.913, and MEI:GEI was 0.621. The average daily gain of the calves was 433 ± 153.1 g/d, which consisted of 78.0 ± 8.99 g protein, 52.7 ± 23.74 g fat, and 302.3 ± 95.1 g water, that is, 18.0% protein, 13.0% fat and 69.8% water. There were 130.7 g of body solids and 9.06 MJ of energy in every kg of body mass gain. Of the MEI, 25.17 kJ were required for 1 g of body mass, 83.40 kJ for 1 g of body solids, and 2.62 kJ for 1 kJ of retained energy (RE), and RE was 36.6% of MEI. The maintenance energy requirement was 5.35 MJ/d, the efficiency of utilization of energy for growth (k(g)) was 0.72, and the heat increment of feeding for growth was 0.28 (1.55 MJ/d). Digestible nitrogen (N) was 0.685 while retained N (RN) was 0.489 of N intake. The N requirement for maintenance was 11.73 g/d or 0.61 g N/kg(0.75) per day, while the biological value (BV) of N was 91.1%. The energy and N requirements for yak calves were relatively low, which could be explained, at least in part, by the high efficiency of utilization of energy and high BV of N when compared to other livestock. These findings could be beneficial in designing early weaning systems for the many Himalayan households depending on yak production for their livelihoods.
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spelling pubmed-93254122022-07-27 Average Daily Gain and Energy and Nitrogen Requirements of 4-Month-Old Female Yak Calves Bai, Binqiang Degen, A. Allan Han, Xiaodong Hao, Lizhuang Huang, Yayu Niu, Jianzhang Liu, Shujie Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science There is little information available on milk intake and energy and nitrogen requirements of growing yak calves. This study aimed to fill this important gap, as this information could be beneficial in designing a system to wean yak calves earlier than in natural time. We determined the average daily gain and energy and nitrogen balances and requirements of 4-month-old female yak calves (48.8 ± 2.45 kg, n = 8). The calves were allowed to suck once a day and were fed an ad libitum concentrate: hay diet at a ratio of 60:40. Milk intake averaged 540 ± 26 g/d, yielding 2.28 ± 0.112 MJ/d, which was 13% of the gross energy intake (GEI). The digestible energy intake (DEI):GEI ratio was 0.681, metabolizable energy intake (MEI):DEI was 0.913, and MEI:GEI was 0.621. The average daily gain of the calves was 433 ± 153.1 g/d, which consisted of 78.0 ± 8.99 g protein, 52.7 ± 23.74 g fat, and 302.3 ± 95.1 g water, that is, 18.0% protein, 13.0% fat and 69.8% water. There were 130.7 g of body solids and 9.06 MJ of energy in every kg of body mass gain. Of the MEI, 25.17 kJ were required for 1 g of body mass, 83.40 kJ for 1 g of body solids, and 2.62 kJ for 1 kJ of retained energy (RE), and RE was 36.6% of MEI. The maintenance energy requirement was 5.35 MJ/d, the efficiency of utilization of energy for growth (k(g)) was 0.72, and the heat increment of feeding for growth was 0.28 (1.55 MJ/d). Digestible nitrogen (N) was 0.685 while retained N (RN) was 0.489 of N intake. The N requirement for maintenance was 11.73 g/d or 0.61 g N/kg(0.75) per day, while the biological value (BV) of N was 91.1%. The energy and N requirements for yak calves were relatively low, which could be explained, at least in part, by the high efficiency of utilization of energy and high BV of N when compared to other livestock. These findings could be beneficial in designing early weaning systems for the many Himalayan households depending on yak production for their livelihoods. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9325412/ /pubmed/35903137 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.906440 Text en Copyright © 2022 Bai, Degen, Han, Hao, Huang, Niu and Liu. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
Bai, Binqiang
Degen, A. Allan
Han, Xiaodong
Hao, Lizhuang
Huang, Yayu
Niu, Jianzhang
Liu, Shujie
Average Daily Gain and Energy and Nitrogen Requirements of 4-Month-Old Female Yak Calves
title Average Daily Gain and Energy and Nitrogen Requirements of 4-Month-Old Female Yak Calves
title_full Average Daily Gain and Energy and Nitrogen Requirements of 4-Month-Old Female Yak Calves
title_fullStr Average Daily Gain and Energy and Nitrogen Requirements of 4-Month-Old Female Yak Calves
title_full_unstemmed Average Daily Gain and Energy and Nitrogen Requirements of 4-Month-Old Female Yak Calves
title_short Average Daily Gain and Energy and Nitrogen Requirements of 4-Month-Old Female Yak Calves
title_sort average daily gain and energy and nitrogen requirements of 4-month-old female yak calves
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9325412/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35903137
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.906440
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