Effect of the administration of a protected source of calcium gluconate on growth, feed efficiency, nutrient digestibility, and health in beef cattle

Abstract

The study evaluated the effects of a protected source of calcium gluconate on production performance, digestibility, and health in beef cattle. A total of 241 Charolaise bulls were randomly divided into two groups: i) Control (n° 120) basal diets + 10g/head/day of a placebo of wheat bran; ii) Treatment (n° 121) basal diets + 10 g/head/d of a protected source of calcium gluconate. The population of each group was divided into two subgroups: i) “Overall population” (n° 100 Control and n° 101 Treatment) housed in pens of 7/8 animals each; ii) “Beefmonitor population” (n° 20 Control and n° 20 Treatment) housed in two pens (Control and Treatment) equipped with two automatic weighting scales to evaluate the daily trends in production performance. Growth performance, feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), were evaluated on both subgroups. Slaughtering performance, apparent total tract digestibility (aTTD) and health were evaluated equally. The average daily gains (ADG) were improved by the Treatment (+40 and +43 g/head/day compared with the Control group, in the “Overall” and “Beefmonitor” populations) (P=0.0084 and <0.0001 respectively). The final weights were also higher (706.82 and 705.83 vs 699.75 and 697.33 kg in the Control group in the “Overall” and “Beefmonitor” populations) (P=0.0084 and 0.037 respectively). The FCR was improved (6.90 and 7.03 vs 7.51 and 7.28 in the Control group in the “Overall” and “Beefmonitor” populations) (P=0.0008 and <0.0001 respectively). The aTTDs of starch (97.05 vs 95.71% in the Control group) (P<0.0001), cellulose (57.91 vs 52.95% in the Control group) (P<0.0001) and NDF (52.02 vs 50.02% in the Control group) (P=0.020) were improved by the Treatment. The incidence of lameness was reduced (0.99 vs 7% in the Control group) (P=0.0282). Including protected sources of calcium gluconate can be functional to improve production efficiency, due to a protective effect on gut health and integrity.