Vol. 11, Special Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Deepikesh Joshi, Sanjay Kumar, Jyoti Palod, Anshu Rahal, AK Ghosh, SK Rastogi, Monika Sodhi, Manish Kumar Verma and Shivajee Pal

Abstract:
India is an agrarian economy where animal husbandry goes hand in hand with agriculture. Presently, there are 50 registered breeds of cattle in India. Badri is the indigenous cattle breed of Uttarakhand which is used as for milk and draught purposes. The experiment was done to study the effect of feeding Moringa oleifera leaves on hematological parameters of Badri cattle. A total of 45 experimental Badri cattle of age groups 6-12 months, 12-18 months and in lactation were selected and the treatment group animals were fed with dried leaves of Moringa oleifera substituted in their concentrate feed twice a day @ 10% and 20% substitution rate for a period of 1 year. Blood samples collected and analysed periodically in the beginning and then at every 3-month interval till 1 year period showed an overall significant increase in the total erythrocyte count in T₂ sub-group in all the three groups with respective values of 5.90±.06, 6.09±.06 and 7.15±.06 million/ µL along with increase in haemoglobin concentration in T₂ sub-group for all the three groups with respective values of 13.11±.06, 12.18±.13 and 12.01±.12 gm %. The observations of treatment animals for total leucocyte count, packed cell volume and clotting time were also positively significant than control sub-group. Hence, Moringa oleifera leaves can be used for substitution in the concentrate feed of Badri cattle in hilly areas, where there is scarcity of traditional fodder crops, to improve the health status of animals.