Iranian Journal of animal Science

Iranian Journal of animal Science

Effect of Different Levels of Vitamin E and Soybean Oil on Production Performance and on Mammary Gland Health in Holstein Cows

Authors
Mohsen Bayat
Hasan Ali Arabi
Mohammad Mahdi Tabatabaei
Ali Asghar Saki
Dariush Alipour
Pouya Zamani
Ahmad Ahmadi
Zahra Zamani
Amir Hosein Dezfoulian
Abstract
This experiment was conducted to determine the effect of feeding Soybean Oil (SO) along with vitamin E on performance and mammary gland health in Holstein cows. Eight Holstein lactating cows were employed in a 2×2 factorial experiment and in an incomplete replicated latin square design. Treatment diets were: 1) 0% SO plus 0 IU of vitamin E, 2) 3% SO plus 0 IU of vitamin E, 3) 0% SO plus 8000 IU of vitamin E, and 4) 3% SO plus 8000 IU of vitamin E. At the end of each period milk and blood samples were taken. Increasing dietary vitamin E increased milk fat. Soybean oil addition decreased milk fat production, and increased milk lactose. Neither soybean oil nor the interaction of SO by vitamin E had any effect on either milk Somatic Cell Count (SCC) or Total Microbial Count (TMC). Animals fed Vitamin E had lower SCC and TMC than animals not fed the vitamin. Results finally indicated that vitamin E supplementation at a high level reduces SCC while increasing mammary glands' health in lactating dairy cows.
Keywords
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Dairy Cows
Somatic Cell Count (SCC)
Total Microbial Count (TMC)