Study the effect of some medicinal herbs on growth and blood metabolites in suckling Holstein calves

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of feeding rosemary, chavil and mixture of rosemary-chavil on growth and blood metabolites of suckling Holstein calves. Thirty two newborn calves from primiparous cows with an initial body weight of 36.24±3.04 kg and thirty two newborn calves from multiparous dairy cows with an initial body weight of 37.38±3.36 kg were used at 4 days to 60 days of age in a complete randomized design with a 2×4 factorial arrangement. Calves were fed with experimental diets including: 1- control diet, 2- control diet‏+ 5% Chavil, 3-control diet‏+5% rosemary, 4-control diet‏+ 2.5% chavil+ 2.5% rosemary. Results showed that dry matter intake (DMI) and weight gain were recorded bi-weekly and blood samples were collected on 30-days intervals entire the study. Glucose, Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN), Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Beta-HydroxyButyricAcid (BHBA), Malondialdehyde (MDA) and Total antioxidant capacity (TAC) concentration was measured. The addition of chavil and mixture of rosemary- chavil to the diet improved dry matter intake (P<0.01), average daily gain (ADG) (P<0.05) and final body weigh (P<0.01). Blood glucose and insulin increased (P<0.05) in calves fed chavil and mixture of rosemary- chavil. Blood Alanine amino transferase (ALT) decreased (P<0.05) with addition of chavil to diet. Experimental treatments had no effect on blood Antioxidant defense. It was concluded that adding chavil to diet had favorable effects on growth performance of suckling Holstein calves from primiparous cows and multiparous dairy cows.