PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF CAMELS TO DIFFERENT SOURCES AND LEVELS OF SELENIUM

Abstract

The values were 62.00, 55.77 and 62.07 mg/dl for CG, OSG and ISG, respectively. This study was carried out at The Camel Studies and Production Development Center, at Matroh governorate that belong to Camel Research Department, Animal Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt. This experiment was conducted for 115 days to evaluate the effect of selenium supplementation from different sources on blood metabolites, antioxidant status, mineral profile and growth performance of growing Maghrabi camels with average initial body weight (IBW) 172.47 ± 10.56 kg, aged 18 months. All animals were kept in individual semi opened pens All animal were offered concentrated feed mixture (CFM) plus alfalfa hay plus rise straw at 2% of BW on dry matter basis. Weighting animals were done biweekly, monthly blood samples were taken from jugular vein in heparinized tubes. Glucose, total protein, albumin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, total lipids, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, thyroxine and triiodothyronine. Antioxidant biomarkers; glutathione peroxidase, catalase, malondialdehyde, and total antioxidant capacity. Mineral profile selenium, sodium, potassium, and calcium were determined. Growth performance was studied through calculation of individual average daily gain, total weight gain, and growth rate.

The obtained results could be summarized as follows: 1. Blood plasma metabolites a. Glucose Results showed that Glu concentration increased gradually through the experimental period in all groups. Selenium supplemented groups OSG and ISG were significantly higher than the control. b. Total protein Over all mean of TP were 6.76, 8.12 and 7.98 g/dl for CG, OSG and ISG. It clearly had shown an improvement of N metabolism that could be attributed to better utilization of dietary protein and ruminal true protein-N in the digestive tract. c. Albumin Also, Alb concentrations were recorded higher values in treated groups than control. It was 4.87 and 4.80 in OSG and ISG respectively, while it was 3.92 in CG. d. Globulin In the same line, Glb concentrations were recorded higher values in treated groups than control. It was 3.25 and 3.18 in OSG and ISG respectively, while it was 2.84 in CG. e. Triglycerides The presented data showed that values of TG are similar in all group with nonsignificant differences among the three groups.