Study On The Effect Of Chinese Herbal Compound On Growth Performance And Immune Function In Beef Calves

Chinese herbal medicine used for the prevention and treatment of animal diseases are mainly from natural medicines and their processed goods under the guidance of the theory of Chinese traditional veterinary medicine. It mainly included vegetable drug (entire plants, root, stem, leaf, fruit, etc.), animal drug (bone, skin, viscera, etc.), mineral drug and part chemical and biological products. Chinese herbal medicine has dual effects of nutrition and drug with the advantages of not easy to produce drug resistance, no residue, small toxic side effects and comprehensive functions. So, it has been aroused great attention of the animal husbandry workers at home and abroad. In this study, many herbal medicines with the effects of tonifying qi and blood, replenishing spleen and eliminating dampness were selected and formulated for three Chinese herbal compounds according the theory of Chinese veterinary medicine. And this research was conducted to study the effect of Chinese herbal compound (CHC) on growth performance and immune function of beef calves, evaluating the effect of health care, and finally screen out an optimal Chinese herbal compound which is suitable for healthy breeding of beef calves and provide a scientific basis on extension and application of beef production. This study consists of two parts:1) Safety assessment of Chinese herbal compoundKunming mice were selected as the experimental object and the safety of CHC-Ⅰ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ were evaluated by the intragastric administration. The results showed that there was no death mice and all the experimental mice was with normal apparent characteristics in the acute toxicity test. there was no death mice and all the experimental mice was with normal apparent characteristics and main visceral organs in the maximum resistance test and ubchronic toxicity test. And there were no histopathologic changes in the paraffin section of visceral organs of all the experimental mice in subchronic toxicity test. Three Chinese herbal compounds increased the body weight in different degrees and CHC-Ⅲ could significantly increase the spleen and thymus index (P<0.05). The results indicated that three Chinese herbal compounds not only have no toxic effects in clinical dosage, but also can enhance the appetite, promote growth and had the effect of regulating immune function.2) Feeding experiment with CHCTwenty healthy three way cross weaning beef calves (Japanese beef×Simmental × Southern Sichuan mountain cattle) aged 4 months with similar body structure were selected and randomly allotted to 4 groups with randomized blocks design:control group and three treatment groups (Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3). For the control group, all the calves were fed basal diet. And for the experimental groups,2% of concentrated food of Chinese herbal compound Ⅰ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ were added. The preliminary trial period were 10 d and formal experiment period were 60 d. The indexes of growth performance, blood routine indexes, serum immune indexes, antioxidant indexes and morbidity were analyzed, and obtained the following results:(1) CHC-Ⅱ and CHC-Ⅲ could significantly increase final weight and average daily gain (P<0.05), significantly decrease feed/gain (P<0.05). CHC-Ⅱ could significantly increase average dry matter intake (P<0.05). The effect of CHC-Ⅰ was not obvious compared with control group, but it also had an improvement effect on growth performance. The results indicated that three Chinese herbal compounds could differentially promote the growth of calves, improve efficiency of feed ultilization in order to guarantee enough nutriment intake and provide necessary precondition for the growth and development.(2) The level of IgA and IgG in calves’ serum were significantly increased after adding CHC-Ⅱ and CHC-Ⅲ (P<0.05), but for CHC-Ⅰ only significantly improving the IgG level (P<0.05). For IgM level, there were no significant differences in three Chinese herbal compound groups compared with control group. Three Chinese herbal compounds could significantly increase the level of serum IL-10 (P<0.05), decrease the level of serum IL-8 (P<0.05), and significantly or extremely significantly decrease the level of serum IL-4 (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CHC-Ⅱ and CHC-Ⅲ could significantly improve the level of IL-2 (P<0.05), CHC-Ⅰ and CHC-Ⅱ could significantly decrease the level of TNF-α (P<0.05). The results indicated that three Chinese herbal compounds could differentially promote the immune cell synthesising and secreting related serum immune molecules. It suggested that the Chinese herbal compounds improve the body’s immune system function and enhance immunity through regulating the body.(3) Three Chinese herbal compounds could significantly increase the level of serum GSH-Px (P<0.05), CHC-Ⅰ and CHC-Ⅱ could significantly increase the level of serum T-AOC and T-SOD, CHC-Ⅱ could also extremely significantly increase the level of serum T-AOC (P<0.01). Three Chinese herbal compounds could differentially decrease the level of MDA, and the statistical difference of CHC-II and CHC-III was significantly (P<0.05). Our results indicated that three Chinese herbal compounds could improve the antioxidant capacity of beef calves, and prevent the destruction of body’s antioxidant system.(4) The morbidity decreased 82.71%,75.88% and 55.18% after feeding three kinds of Chinese herbal compounds. It indicated that three Chinese herbal compounds have a positive role for calves’health, a certain ability to fight disease, and preventive effect.In conclusion, Three Chinese herbal compounds are security and reliable, and have a certain ability to increase average dry matter intake, fight disease and promote the growth of calves, enhance the immune function, and improve the antioxidant capacity. CHC-III has a better effect among the three Chinese herbal compounds, and can be developed green health product of beef calves.