Performance and Profi le of Some Blood Components of Ongole Crossbred Cattle Fed Ration Containing Lerak (Sapindus rarak De Candole)

Abstract

The problem with low meat production is caused by several factors, ie: management, feed and animal health. The development of integration system such as cattle-rice, cattle-corn and cattle-palm oil aims to utilize feed from local resources. However, sometimes local feedstuff causes a problem of imbalance nutrient. There are several strategies to overcome this problem and one of them is the use of feed additives from natural substance or plant resources such as lerak (Sapindus rarak De Candole). This research was aimed to utilize lerak fruit to improve performance and evaluate some blood profi les of Ongole crossbred cattle. The in vivo work was done using 12 Ongole crossbred cattle receiving 3 different feeds as treatment, i.e. 1) feed without lerak (high roughage diet) as control, 2) feed contained 2,5% lerak, and 3) feed contained 5% lerak. Growth, daily gain, blood profi les (leucocytes, cholesterol, trigliceride and globulins) were observed. The results showed no signifi cant differences for nutrient intake, meaning that the ration has good palatability. Average daily gain of cattle fed with 2,5% lerak was 20% higher than those with control diet. White blood cells tended to decrease caused by lerak treatments, but the globulin profi les (alpha, beta and gamma) were not signifi cantly affected in all treatments. Blood cholesterol concentration decreased following the increase of lerak percentage. It is not recommended to use lerak in the cattle ration for more than two months because of the decreasing of leucocytes.