Medicinal Chemistry

Response of Blood Eosinophils in Lactating Crossbred Cows Fed with Bamboo Leaves as a Replacement to Pasture Hay in Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Beksisa Urge*, Temegen Kasa, Eyob Gebregziabhear, Getu Kitaw, Yigardu Mulatu

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of feeding bamboo leaf alone or in mixture with hay as basal diet on physiological and Blood eosinophil values in high grade crossbred milking cows. Five milking cows were grouped randomly into five treatments consisting of hay and bamboo leaves at the proportion of 100:0 (T1), 75:25 (T2), 50:50 (T3), 25:75 (T4) and 0:100% (T5) respectively. A prospective study was undertaken to study the effects of bamboo leaves on the response of eosinophils in experimental crossbred cows. In this experiment, mean rectal temperature of crossbred milking cows that had fed 25% (T2), 50% (T3) and 75% (T4) inclusion of bamboo leaves replacement over cows that received the control diet (T1) was 39.06 ± 0.64, 38.02 ± 0.70 and 39.04 ± 0.62 respectively. Similarly, mean blood eosinophil responses (55.33±3.90), mean packed cell volume indices (23.75 ± 0.66) and milk yield (7.9 ± 0.25) had dropped significantly (p<0.05) in crossbred cows that were fed with bamboo leaf replacement of the pasture hay at the ratio of 100% (T5). Mean Milk yield (8.3± 0.23), mean packed cell volume volume indices (30.5 ± 2.10) and mean blood eosinophils (118.75 ± 9.71) were significantly (P<0.05) increased for crossbred cows that had fed bamboo leaf at the ratio of 25% (T2) and 50% (T3) as compared to T1 values. Change of body weight of cows that were fed with 75% (T4) was significantly declined and lost in 100% (T5) which was negatively correlated with complete substitution (p<5%). The Eosinophil index of milking cows was generally greater in T2 and T3 values. Outputs of the experiment showed that Bamboo leaf supplementation had linearly improved blood eosinophil responses significantly (p<5%) at 25 percent and 50 percent inclusion levels over crossbred cows that had received the control diet (T1). Based on the result of this experiment, blood eosinophils of crossbred cows were effective and responsive when bamboo leaves had replaced the pasture hay at the ratio of 25% (T2) and 50%(T3) levels. On the other hand, bamboo leaf supplementation at the rate of 75% (T4) and 100%(T5) inclusion levels had resulted in poor performances of blood eosinophils and depressed milk yield that had adversely induced profuse diarrhea, weight loss, gait disorders, convulsions, toxic and other adverse effects in the experimental lactating cows. In conclusion, Bamboo leaves had better blood response values as compared to pasture hay in this experiment and hence can be a good substitute to hay at the rate of 25% and 50% in the long dry season when conventional roughages are in short supply without any adverse health effect on the cows.