著者

髙橋 俊彦 夏井 美聡 岸田 美月 北野 菜奈 井上 誠司 菊 佳男

出版者

酪農学園大学

雑誌

酪農学園大学紀要. 自然科学編 (ISSN:21870500)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.47, no.1, pp.1-6, 2022-10

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During the suckling period, calves are prone to physiological anemia. Anemic calves often develop respiratory and digestive problems that lead to poor growth. As a precursor of hemoglobin, aminolevulinic acid has an oxygencarrying function in red blood cells in the body, and is expected to prevent anemia. In this study, we examined the effects of feeding aminolevulinic acid to calves on their growth and analyzed whether it had anemia-preventing effects. Our subject calves were six suckling calves, three of which were orally administered an aminolevulinic acid preparation (5 g/day for 60 days; test group), and three of which received no aminolevulinic acid (controls). At 0, 1, and 3 months of age, body weight, height, daily gain, and blood parameters (red blood cell count, hemoglobin, iron, hematocrit, white blood cell count, total protein, and total cholesterol) were measured, and the number of respiratory and digestive diseases and number of days of treatment were investigated. In the test group, body height was significantly higher at 1 month of age, and daily body mass also tended to be higher at 1-3 months of age. In blood tests, the red blood cell count and hemoglobin were below standard values at birth and at 2 months of age in both the test and control groups. Iron and total cholesterol tended to be higher in the test group at 1 and 3 months of age, while white blood cell count and total protein tended to be higher in the control group. In terms of disease status, the number of days of treatment was small in the test group, and no calves were diagnosed with anemia. These results suggest that aminolevulinic acid may improve the nutritional status of calves and be effective in promoting growth and preventing anemia.