Journal Articles

Changes in biochemical proxy indicators for nutritional stress resilience from Boran and Nguni cows reared in dry arid rangeland

The objective of this study was to determine the changes in biochemical indicators for nutritional stress from a herd of Boran and Nguni cows. A total of 40 cows (20 from each herd) were randomly selected for the study. The animals were identified according to their parities as follows: parity 1 (n = 8), parity 2 (n = 16), parity 3 (n = 8) and parity 4 (n = 8). Serum chemistry levels of glucose, total cholesterol, urea, creatinine, albumin, globulin, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma glutylaminotransferase (GGT), leukocytes, erythrocytes, haemoglobin, packed cell volume (PCV) and platelet counts were determined for 12 consecutive months spanning across the wet and dry seasons. The Boran cows had different creatinine concentration levels at different parities. The Boran cows in parity 1 had the highest (P < 0.05) concentration of creatinine 87.2 ± 5.17 μmol/L than other cows in different parities within the herd. There were significant differences in enzymes such as AST, ALP and ALT among the herd and parities. Boran cows in parity 3 had the lowest (P < 0.05) AST concentration levels of 52.6 ± 3.48 U/L, Nguni cows in parity 4 had the highest concentration of ALP of 161.3 ± 8.10 U/L while Nguni cows in parity 1 had the highest concentration level of ALT 55.1 ± 1.56 U/L than all the cows within the same herd. The Nguni herd had significantly higher (P < 0.05) levels of creatinine in both the wet (97.8 ± 3.27 μmol/L) and dry seasons (108.7 ± 3.29 μmol/L) compared with the Boran herd. Cows from the Nguni herd maintained significantly higher amount of urea, creatinine, albumin and total protein in both the wet and dry seasons as compared with cows from the Boran herd. Cows from the Nguni herd maintained significantly higher amount of urea, creatinine, albumin and total protein in both the wet and dry seasons as compared with those from the Boran herd.

Link: http://bit.ly/2oVCSG6

DOI: http://bit.ly/2oVCSG6

related Publications

Journal Articles
Nutritional enhancement of sheep meat fatty acid profile for human health and wellbeing
Joint Publications
Assessment of nutritional and phytochemical quality of Dawadawa (an African fermented condiment) produced from Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea)

This study investigated the nutritional composition, antinutrients and phenolic composition of raw, hulled and dehulled Bambara groundnuts (BGN) (Vigna subterranea) and their derived dawadawa products. Phenolic compounds were investigated using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/Q-TOF-MS) system while determination of amino acids and mineral contents were done ...

Journal Articles
Modelling predicts that soybean is poised to dominate crop production across Africa