Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Golestan province, Iran.
The main objectives of this research were to assess the male buffalo calves welfare under two different feeding ration. An experiment was conducted to study the feeding of different sources of protein, viz., cotton seed meal (CSM) and Soya bean meal (SBM) in the ration of male buffalo calves in the north part of Iran. 25 male buffalo calves of 6–12 months of age were selected and after 14 days of pre adjustment period on feeding, 5 animals were discarded and the remaining 20 buffalo calves were divided into 2 treatments of 10 buffalo in each treatment. Experiment examined the animal responses to growth and biochemical changes, over 120 days. The statistical analysis was of complete randomize design (CRD). The housing systems for both the group were loose housing systems. Average daily growth rate of cottonseed meal (CSM) group were 0.600 g/day compare to Soya bean meal (SBM) group of 0.700 g/day. There were significant differences (P<0.05) between the two treatments also feed conversion efficiency of CSM were significant (P<0.05) over the SBM group. Regarding biochemical changes like (hemoglobin, PCV, Glucose and total protein) the HB and total protein of CSM group was significant (P< 0.05) over the other group; likewise and glucose of SBM group were significant (P<0.05).
