›› 2016, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (6): 1468-1474.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2016.06.010

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Effect of Dietary Monensin on Production Performance and Nutrient Digestion of Lactating Dairy Cows

CHEN Yuan1, LI Yan2, GAO Yan-xia1, LI Qiu-feng1, CAO Yu-feng1, LI Yun-qi1, LI Jian-guo1   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding 071001, China;
    2. College of Veterinary Medicine, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding 071001, China
  • Received:2016-01-18 Online:2016-06-20 Published:2016-07-11

Abstract: Twelve lactating Holstein dairy cows were selected via a replicated 4 × 4 latin square design to determine the effect of feeding different levels of monensin on the production performance and nutrient digestion of lactating dairy cows.The test was divided into 4 period and each period was 28 d (7 d for preliminary feeding and 21 d for formal feeding).The cows in control group were fed with the basal diet (TMR,group A),and the diets of the three experimental groups were added with different levels of monensin (300 mg/d,group B;400 mg/d,group C;500 mg/d,group D) on the basis of the TMR diet,respectively.The results showed that the diets containing monensin increased the milk yield and lactose percentage,and reduced milk fat percentage.Compared with control group,the milk yield of group C and D were significantly increased by 4.08% and 4.57% (P < 0.05) respectively,the lactose of group D was significantly increased by 1.99% (P < 0.05),and milk fat of group D was significantly reduced by 7.45% (P < 0.05).However,adding monensin had no effect on 4% fat corrected milk (FCM),solids-non-fat (SNF) and milk protein (P > 0.05).In addition,adding monensin also significantly increased body weight gain (BWG),digestibility of crude protein (CP),neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) in diet.The BWG of group D was significantly increased by 34.62% (P < 0.05),and the digestibility of CP in three experimental groups were respectively increased by 3.73%,4.35%,5.35% (P < 0.01),and the digestibility of NDF and ADF in group D was respectively increased by 7.24% (P < 0.05)and 9.08% (P < 0.05) compared to the control group.Moreover,the dry matter intake (DMI) and the digestibility of ether extract (EE),calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) were not significantly changed by monension (P > 0.05).The results suggested that supplementing 400 to 500 mg/d monensin with diet per cow was optimal for production performance,nutrient digestion and economic benefit of lactating dairy cows.

Key words: monensin; dairy cow; production performance; nutrient digestion

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