Abstract

COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF VARIOUS PARAMETERS IN LACTATION INDUCED REPEAT BREEDING CATTLE VS. NATURAL LACTATING NULLIPAROUS CATTLE, USING RESERPINE

Nagaraja K.*, Jagadeesh S Sanganal, Byregowda S. M., Shridhar N. B., Sunilchandra U., Satyanarayana M. L. and Chandrashekaramurthy V.

Abstract

The pharmacological induction of lactation was carried out in 30 animals, divided into three groups with 10 animals in each group. Group I, animals which were in first lactation served as control. Group II, administered with 17β-estradiol at 0.1 mg/kg body weight and progesterone at 0.25 mg/kg body weight were administered from day 1 to 7 twice daily 12 h apart by subcutaneous route at either side neck region on alternate days. Reserpine (5mg/animal/day) were administered for 4 days (on day 8, 10, 12 and 14) by intramuscular route. The treatment schedule for Group III, from day 1 to 7 was adopted as per group II. Reserpine (5 mg/animal/ day) and dexamethasone (20mg/animal) were administered for 4 days from day 14 to 17 by intramuscular route. The relative efficacy of lactation induction protocol employed in group II and III was 100 per cent. In all the animals milking was initiated on day 20 and milking was carried out twice a day in the morning and evening with 12 h interval between the milking. The first day milk was watery, yellowish to white in color. The milk secretions in all the animals become normal within 3 to 7 days. The mean daily milk yield was varied between the groups and the mean peak daily milk yield of 4.29±0.08 and 4.81±0.15 liters was observed on day 90 and 75 in group II and III respectively. The mean total milk yield for the period of 90 days of group I, II and III group were 357.83±4.05, 224.±4.30 and 326.48±5.04 liters respectively. The mean total milk yield for 90 days of lactation in the group III was highly significant (P

Keywords: Lactation induction, dexamethasone, 17?-estradiol, progesterone, reserpine.