EFFECT OF PROBIOTICS SUPPLEMENTATION ON GROWTH AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF MAGHATIR CAMEL-CALVES

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of probiotics inclusion on growth traits, hematological profile and thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) concentration at monthly intervals for six months period. 22 early weaned camel-calves of Maghatir breed (12 males and 10 females) aged 6-7 months and weighing 186.6±0.3and 173.2 ±0.0.5 kg for males and females, respectively were used. Calves were allotted into two main groups according to their gender and each gender was assigned into two equal groups had approximately similar body weight. The first group fed concentrate feed mixtures (CFM) without probiotics and served as control group (C), whereas, the second group fed CFM plus 20g/h/d of probiotics and served as treated group (P). Live body weight (BW) and hematological parameters (hemoglobin concentration, Hb; packed cell volume, PCV; erythrocyte count, RBC's; and total leukocytes count, WBC's) were determined monthly. In addition derived erythrocyte indices (mean corpuscular volume, MCV, fl; mean corpuscular hemoglobin, MCH, pg and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, MCHC %) were calculated in addition to plasma thyroid hormones concentration. Results indicated that males of (P) group gained more body weight (+5.39%) compared with the corresponding females' one. Probiotics supplementation improved ADG for males (18.5%) and females (4.9%), respectively than control groups. Porbiotics supplementation had no effect (P>0.05) on plasma T3 and T4 concentrations in both genders. Hb, PCV, RBC's and WBC's values significantly (P<0.05) affected in both gender calves supplemented probiotics compared with control calves. Gender had significant effects on body weight, hematological parameters and T3 and T4 where females had higher values (P<0.05) of Hb, PCV and RBC’s count, while male calves had higher (P<0.05) values of BW, WBC’s count, T4 and T3 levels than females. Daily gain of control groups showed that male calves had higher (P<0.01) daily gain than the female calves. In addition, plasma T3 concentrations increased (P<0.001) over time in both genders and tended to be more related to body weight gain, while T4 behaved the opposite trend. It could be concluded that probiotics supplementation (20g/h/d) in ration of post-weaning camel calves improving weight gain and physiological status.