PERFORMANCE OF GROWING MURRAH BUFFALO CALVES AS AFFECTED BY TREATMENT WITH MANOXOL AND THE PRESENCE OF CILIATE PROTOZOA IN THE RUMEN

Fifteen Murrah male buffalo calves in three groups of five each (Group I, defaunated; Group II, refaunated; Group III, faunated) were offered wheat straw and concentrate mixture as per requirements. Intake of dry matter was not affected by defaunation. Digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre, cellulose and hemicellulose was reduced (P<0.01) in defaunated calves. However, no difference was found between refaunated and faunated groups. Crude protein digestibility was similar in all the groups. Body weight gain and feed conversion efficiency was not significantly different among the groups. It was concluded that neither defaunation nor refaunation/Manoxol have any apparent adverse effect on the performance of Murrah buffalo calves.