VDM Verlag Mineral Manipulation to Enhance Ruminant Productivity in Tropics: Impact of altering dietary cationic anionic concentrations on blood chemistry and productivity of ruminants in tropics

Minerals are integral parts of all biological reactions taking place at any given time in animal body. The outcome of this research document reflects that the ratio of fixed dietary cations and anions is an important determinant of dietary impact on systemic acid base status in buffaloes.It offers an economical and doable mineral nutritional practice which can be used to manipulate the dietary cation anion difference (DCAD) to diver biological/ physiological reactions of the animal towards optimum productivity.His pioneer studies on DCAD in buffaloes revealed that feeding negative DCAD before parturition reduces the occurrence of hypocalcaemia (milk fever),a well known metabolic disorder which brings heavy economic loss by adversely affecting the productive and reproductive performance of buffalo.His work further revealed that feeding high DCAD can increase nutrients intake, milk and milk fat production during summer.His work not only helped the farming community of the country to optimize livestock productivity in summer but also offered a practical solution to prevent the milk fever in dairy animals through nutritional manipulation.