title: Supplementing Vitamin E to the Ration of Beef Cattle Increased the Utilization Efficiency of Dietary Nitrogen.
abstract: The objectives of the trial were to investigate the effects of supplementing vitamin E (VE) on nutrient digestion, nitrogen (N) retention and plasma parameters of beef cattle in feedlot. Four growing Simmental bulls, fed with a total mixed ration composed of corn silage and concentrate mixture as basal ration, were used as the experimental animals. Four levels of VE product, i.e. 0, 150, 300, 600 mg/head/d (equivalent to 0, 75, 150, 300 IU VE/head/d), were supplemented to the basal ration (VE content 38 IU/kg dry matter) in a 4×4 Latin square design as experimental treatments I, II, III and IV, respectively. Each experimental period lasted 15 days, of which the first 12 days were for pretreatment and the last 3 days for sampling. The results showed that supplementing VE did not affect the nutrient digestibility (p>0.05) whereas decreased the urinary N excretion (p<0.01), increased the N retention (p<0.05) and tended to increase the microbial N supply estimated based on the total urinary purine derivatives (p = 0.057). Supplementing VE increased the plasma concentrations of VE, glucose and triglycerol (TG) (p<0.05) and tended to increase the plasma concentration of total protein (p = 0.096) whereas did not affect the plasma antioxidant indices and other parameters (p>0.05). It was concluded that supplementing VE up to 300 IU/head/d did not affect the nutrient digestibility whereas supplementing VE at 150 or 300 IU/head/d increased the N retention and the plasma concentrations of VE and TG (p<0.05) of beef cattle.
authors.affiliation: DSM China Animal Nutrition Centre, Bazhou, Hebei 065700, China .
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: DSM China Animal Nutrition Centre, Bazhou, Hebei 065700, China .
authors.forename: Shixin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: DSM China Animal Nutrition Centre, Bazhou, Hebei 065700, China .
authors.forename: Jinlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: DSM China Animal Nutrition Centre, Bazhou, Hebei 065700, China .
authors.forename: Guangyong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: DSM China Animal Nutrition Centre, Bazhou, Hebei 065700, China .
authors.forename: Tingting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: DSM China Animal Nutrition Centre, Bazhou, Hebei 065700, China .
authors.forename: Wensi
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
keywords: Beef Cattle; Digestibility; Nitrogen Retention; Plasma; Vitamin E