Impact of feeding on growth performance, blood biochemical and mineral profiles of pre-pubescent camels under pastoral management in arid western Rajasthan.

The experiment was undertaken on 20 pre-pubescent dromedary camels of 300 ± 7.0 kg average bodyweight (BW) and 1.5-2 years of age to determine change in body weight, blood biochemical and mineral profiles and morphometric parameters on rangeland grazing (GR) and supplementary stall feeding (GS) at arid northwestern part of Rajasthan over a period of 80 days. GR camels were maintained only on grazing, while GS camels were fed semi-intensively ad-lib groundnut haulms along with formulated concentrate and mineral mixture to meet maintenance requirement. Intake of young camels was determined using chromium(III) oxide as internal marker. The biomass yield of rangeland estimated was 0.54 t DM/ha. Dry matter intake (kg/day) by GR camels on rangeland grazing was lower than that by GS camels fed on supplementary feeding. The nutrient digestibility of dry matter and organic matter (P < 0.05) and crude protein was higher in GS camels than that in GR camels. Likewise, intake of digestible crude protein (P < 0.05) and metabolizable energy were higher in stall-fed young camels. Pre-pubescent camels fed on grazing had significantly (P < 0.01) low glucose and higher urea concentration compared to stall-fed camels. Final body weight of camels differed significantly (P < 0.05) between groups. The camels fed on supplementary stall feeding had significantly (P < 0.01) higher total gain (kg) and average daily gain (ADG) compared to camels on grazing. Among morphometric parameters, body length and body height showed more significant increase in GS compared to GR camels. Intake of digestible crude protein (DCP) by GR group was 43% low compared to the requirement for growing camel of 300 kg body weight. Despite this, GR camels were able to maintain body weight due to better recycling of urea which was significantly higher in comparison to GS camels. The findings of significantly (P < 0.01) low serum glucose and higher urea concentration and lower body weight gain of GR camels suggest the need of locally available protein and energy supplement in addition to grazing for better growth performance.