Supplementation with sodium butyrate improves growth and antioxidant function in dairy calves before weaning

Table 2 Growth performance of calves fed different levels of sodium butyrate

Items	Treatment^a				SEM	P-value
Items	SB0	SB15	SB30	SB45		Linear	Quadratic	Cubic	Trt^b × Day	Day
Initial BW, kg	40.6	38.8	39.7	39.4	0.38
Final BW, kg	90.6	93.4	92.2	92.8	0.58	0.441	0.448	0.376
Gain of BW, kg	50.0	54.6	52.5	53.4	0.61	1.000	1.000	1.000
ADG, kg/d	0.83	0.90	0.89	0.88	0.02	0.086	0.034	0.230	0.351	<.0001
Total DMI ^c, g/d	1201.8	1202.9	1191.7	1186.9	3.90	0.545	0.886	0.843	0.988	<.0001
Starter DMI, g/d	123.6	122.2	114.9	113.8	1.59	0.692	0.994	0.897	0.963	<.0001
Liquid diet DMI, g/d	1078.2	1080.7	1076.8	1073.1	1.59	0.165	0.317	0.650	0.494	<.0001
F:G ratio ^d	1.45	1.33	1.34	1.35	0.06	0.061	0.354	0.401	<.001	<.0001
Initial withers height, cm	76.6	74.4	74.7	75.0	0.49
Final withers height, cm	93.3	92.9	93.7	93.2	0.17	0.882	0.913	0.442
Gain of withers height, cm	16.7	18.5	19.0	18.2	0.35	0.478	0.079	0.708
Initial body length, cm	70.8	68.9	69.7	69.6	0.39
Final body length, cm	90.9	92.3	92.4	91.8	0.34	0.254	0.082	0.782
Gain of body length, cm	20.1	23.4	22.7	22.2	0.52	0.054	0.061	0.599
Initial heart girth, cm	82.3	83.2	81.8	83.1	0.33
Final heart girth, cm	105.0	105.1	104.6	104.3	0.18	0.287	0.779	0.742
Gain of heart girth, cm	22.7	22.9	22.8	21.2	0.38	0.124	0.368	0.198

Means (n = 10 per treatment group) with different superscripts in a row differ significantly (P < 0.05). Tendency P values are underlined, and significant P values are bolded
^a SB0, SB15, SB30, and SB45: 0, 15, 30, and 45 g of sodium butyrate per day, respectively, were supplemented
^b Trt Treatment
^c Total DMI = starter DMI + liquid feed DMI
^d Feed-to-gain ratio was calculated by total DMI to ADG

ISSN: 2049-1891