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Growth, physiology, and coccidiosis infestation of suckling beef calves grazing warm-season grasses and offered creep-feeding supplementation with or without monensin

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Abstract

This study evaluated the growth, physiology, and coccidiosis infestation of suckling beef calves provided monensin and grazing limpograss (Exp. 1) or bahiagrass (Exp. 2) pastures. Treatments were randomly assigned to pastures (4 pastures/treatment; 3 cow-calf pairs/pasture in Exp. 1; 4 pastures/treatment; 10 cow-calf pairs/pair of pastures in Exp. 2) and comprised of supplementation of 0.40 kg/d of soybean meal added or not with monensin (20 mg/kg of total DM intake) for 112 and 78 days before weaning in Exp. 1 and 2, respectively. In Exp. 1, supplement DM disappearance tended (P = 0.10) to be less for calves supplemented with vs. without monensin, but treatment × day and treatment effects were not observed (P ≥ 0.18) for herbage mass (HM), herbage allowance (HA), cow body condition score (BCS), calf average daily gain (ADG), calf plasma data, and fecal coccidia egg count. In Exp. 2, forage nutritive value, HM and HA, and cow BCS did not differ (P ≥ 0.43) between treatments. Supplemental monensin did not impact (P ≥ 0.78) plasma concentrations of insulin-like growth factor 1 but increased (P ≤ 0.05) calf overall ADG and plasma concentrations on day 78 and reduced plasma concentrations of urea nitrogen (PUN) on day 78 and fecal coccidia egg count on day 78 compared to calves provided no monensin supplementation. Hence, monensin supplementation successfully improved growth performance of creep-fed suckling beef calves, when herbage mass was not a limiting factor and coccidiosis infestation occurred.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Science, Federal University of Tocantins, Araguaina, 77824, Brazil

    Rhaiza A. Oliveira, Jose N. M. Neiva & Fabricia R. C. Miotto

  2. University of Florida – Range Cattle Research & Education Center, Ona, 33865-9706, USA

    Joao M. B. Vendramini, Marcelo Vedovatto, Elizabeth Palmer, Hiran M. da Silva & Philipe Moriel

Authors
  1. Rhaiza A. Oliveira
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  2. Joao M. B. Vendramini
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  3. Marcelo Vedovatto
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  4. Elizabeth Palmer
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  5. Hiran M. da Silva
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  6. Jose N. M. Neiva
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  7. Fabricia R. C. Miotto
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  8. Philipe Moriel
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Contributions

Animal feeding and sample collections [R.A.O.; M.V.; E.P.]; conceptualization [J.M.B.V.; J.N.M.N.; F.R.C.M.]; forage evaluation [H.M.S.]; statistical analysis and writing [P.M.]

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Correspondence to Philipe Moriel.

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Animals were cared for in accordance with acceptable practices and experimental protocols reviewed and approved by the University of Florida Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (#201910675).

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Oliveira, R.A., Vendramini, J.M.B., Vedovatto, M. et al. Growth, physiology, and coccidiosis infestation of suckling beef calves grazing warm-season grasses and offered creep-feeding supplementation with or without monensin. Trop Anim Health Prod 53, 363 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-021-02789-x

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