Effect of herbal feed additives on milk performance and health status of dairy goats

Wójtowski, Jacek Antoni; Pikul, Jan; Mikołajczak, Przemysław; Czopowicz, Michał; Kaba, Jarosław; Foksowicz-Flaczyk, Joanna; Antkowiak, Ireneusz; Pytlewski, Jarosław; Markiewicz-Kęszycka, Maria; Stanisławski, Daniel

doi:10.2478/jvetres-2025-0021

Figures & Tables

Composition of the diet offered to the studied dairy goats

	Component	% diet dry matter
Incorporated in total mixed ration	Maize silage	15.6
	Grass hay silage	21.6
	Brewers’ grain silage	7.8
	Concentrate mixture (triticale, corn grain, lupine grain, rapeseed meal and sunflower meal)	26.4
	Meadow hay	10.3
	Dried sugar beet pulp	4.4
	Barley straw	3.3
Not in total mixed ration	Experimental concentrate	10.6
	Chemical composition	g/kg dry matter
	Organic matter	451
	Crude protein	163
	Acid detergent fibre	267
	Neutral detergent fibre	401

Acute-phase proteins in the blood plasma of the studied herbally supplemented dietary groups of dairy goats

Group	Hp (g/L)	SAA (mg/L)
7/20 g	Median = 0.325	Median = 0
	IQR = 0.298–0.358	IQR = 0–0
	Range = 0.270–0.847	Range= 0–0
7/40 g	Median = 0.278	Median = 0
	IQR = 0.234–0.439	IQR = 0–1.890
	Range = 0.156–0.518	Range = 0–58.21
9/20 g	Median = 0.220	Median = 0
	IQR = 0.203–0.259	IQR = 0–0
	Range = 0.127–0.359	Range = 0–2.36
9/40 g	Median = 0.356	Median = 0
	IQR = 0.244–0.591	IQR = 0–0.009
	Range = 0.130–1.734	Range = 0–27.16
CTR	Median = 0.138	Median = 0
	IQR = 0.100–0.306	IQR = 0–1.714
	Range = 0.081–3.097	Range = 0–197.6
Kruskal–Wallis H test P-value	0.010	0.195
Comparisons between control group (CTR) and the four other groups
Group	Dunn’s test P-value:
7/20 g	0.052	-
7/40 g	0.456	-
9/20 g	0.999	-
9/40 g	0.103	-

Haematological and biochemical parameters of blood in the studied herbally supplemented dietary groups of dairy goats

	Mean	Group					SE	P-value	Reference range
	Mean	7/20 g	7/40 g	9/20 g	9/40 g	CTR	SE	P-value	Reference range
Haematological parameters
RBC (T/L)	12.38	12.37	12.06	11.82	12.98	12.66	0.20	0.3715	8–18*
HGB (g/dL)	9.32	9.28	9.18	9.05	9.46	9.65	0.11	0.4895	8–12*
HCT (%)	24.10	24.88^a	23.67^ab	22.68^b	24.37^a	24.89^a	0.27	0.0402	22–28*
MCV (fl)	19.96	20.24	20.08	19.98	19.81	19.69	0.18	0.8840	16–25*
MCH (p/g)	7.63	7.54	7.62	7.70	7.68	7.63	0.07	0.9653	5.2–8*
MCHC (g/dL)	38.01	37.34	38.75	38.55	38.30	37.10	0.41	0.6479	30–36*
PLT (G/L)	305.20	308.00	279.17	330.00	311.25	297.58	8.49	0.4335	160–490**
RDW-CV %	28.10	27.79	27.95	27.58	28.55	28.64	0.18	0.2546
WBC (G/L)	11.27	10.40	10.73	11.86	11.47	11.88	0.34	0.5573	4–13*
Neutrophils (%)	56.11	54.27	58.84	57.02	54.92	55.51	1.45	0.8738	30–48*
Neutrophils (G/L)	6.40	5.69	6.32	6.84	6.47	6.68	0.28	0.7514
Lymphocyte (%)	38.25	38.85	34.71	37.68	40.47	39.55	1.39	0.7362	50–70*
Lymphocyte (G/L)	4.24	3.97	3.72	4.39	4.48	4.63	0.17	0.4408
Monocyte (%)	1.54	1.90	1.55	1.22	1.51	1.53	0.13	0.5782	0–4*
Monocyte (G/L)	0.17	0.20	0.17	0.14	0.15	0.18	0.02	0.8211
Eosinophils (%)	3.43	4.09	4.08	3.30	3.08	2.60	0.31	0.4863	1–8*
Eosinophils G/L)	0.37	0.45	0.43	0.39	0.28	0.29	0.04	0.4659
Basophils (%)	0.81	0.90	0.76	0.79	0.78	0.82	0.04	0.8006	0–1*
Biochemical parameters
Cholesterol (mg/dL)	81.17	75.92	85.33	80.75	80.08	83.75	2.49	0.8001	80–115**
Triglycerydes (mg/dL)	19.35	18.00^ab	20.75^ab	22.83^a	15.67^b	19.50^ab	0.73	0.0195	16–56**
LDL Cholesterol (mg/dL)	24.95	23.53	24.18	26.64	23.41	26.98	1.11	0.7569	21–58**
HDL Cholesterol (mg/dL)	61.30	57.09	66.57	57.99	61.72	63.15	2.05	0.5956	48–83**
Glucose (mg/dL)	51.50	49.42	50.75	55.00	52.42	49.92	0.91	0.2969	50–75*

The influence of herbal supplement dietary group and lactation stage (time) on dairy goat milk yield, composition, some processing parameters and somatic cell count (SCC)

Parameter	Mean	Group					Time (week)				SE	Group	Time	Group × Time
Parameter	Mean	7/20 g	7/40 g	9/20 g	9/40 g	CTR	4	8	12	16	SE	Group	P-value
Milk yield (kg/d)	2.75	2.61	2.63	2.69	2.93	2.89	2.93^a	2.96^a	2.80^a	2.31^b	0.05	0.6402	0.0001	0.0003
Fat corrected milk (kg/d)	2.90	2.80	2.83	2.83	3.08	2.95	3.02^a	3.32^b	2.79^d	2.46^c	0.05	0.8030	0.0001	0.0037
Fat (%)	4.06	4.32^a	4.19^ab	3.99^ab	4.10^ab	3.68^b	3.84^a	4.68^b	3.53^d	4.17^c	0.05	0.0323	0.0001	0.3906
Protein (%)	3.38	3.29	3.45	3.35	3.48	3.32	3.37^a	3.55^b	3.16^c	3.44^a	0.02	0.3395	0.0001	0.2085
Lactose (%)	4.39	4.32	4.41	4.38	4.38	4.46	4.48^a	4.33^b	4.39^b	4.36^b	0.01	0.2027	0.0001	0.7794
Total solids (%)	12.66	12.73	12.90	12.55	12.82	12.28	12.59^a	13.42^b	11.91^c	12.72^a	0.07	0.3309	0.0001	0.5426
Solids not fat (%)	8.60	8.41	8.71	8.57	8.72	8.60	8.74^a	8.74^a	8.37^c	8.55^b	0.03	0.2628	0.0001	0.6030
fat : protein ratio	1.20	1.31^a	1.22^a	1.19^b	1.17^b	1.11^b	1.14^a	1.32^b	1.12^a	1.21^c	0.01	0.0026	0.0001	0.3325
FPD (°C)	0.563	0.563	0.561	0.563	0.563	0.564	0.563^ab	0.560^a	0.565^c	0.563^b	0.001	0.7198	0.0031	0.2553
Milk urea (mg/L)	316	299	317	318	316	330	313^a	358^b	275^c	317^a	3	0.0628	0.0001	0.3474
Casein (%)	2.55	2.47	2.62	2.54	2.64	2.51	2.56^a	2.69^b	2.39	2.58^a	0.02	0.3452	0.0001	0.2470
Acidity pH	6.60	6.59^ab	6.59^ab	6.58^b	6.57^b	6.67^a	6.65^a	6.60^b	6.54^d	6.61^bc	0.01	0.0074	0.0001	0.0490
SCC (log10 cell/mL)	5.72	5.70	5.70	5.72	5.73	5.72	5.72^a	5.76^a	5.62^b	5.77^a	0.01	0.9313	0.0001	0.2634

Components of the herbal mixtures with which the studied dairy goats were supplemented

Herbal mixture

Herb and proportion in the mixture (% dry matter)

Composed of seven herbs

Common nettle Urtica dioica L. (leaves): 20%;Common agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria (dried flowering shoot tips) 10%;Caraway Carum carvi (fruit) 10%;Coriander Coriandrum sativum (fruit) 15%;Fenugreek Trigonella foenum-graecum L. (seeds) 20%;Plantain Plantago lanceolata L. (herb) 20%;Purple willow Salix purpurea (bark) 5%.

Composed of nine herbs

Common nettle Urtica dioica L. (leaves): 10%;Common agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria (herb – dried flowering shoot tips) 10%;Fennel Foeniculum vulgare (fruit) 15%;Coriander Coriandrum sativum (fruit) 15%;Fenugreek Trigonella foenum-graecum L. (seeds) 10%;Peppermint Mentha piperita (leaves) 16%;Chamomile Matricaria chamomilla L. (flower clusters) 4%;Milk thistle Silybum marianum (endosperm) 4%;Thyme Thymus vulgaris (leaves) 16%.

Percentages of herbally supplemented dairy goats (100% = 12 goats) with acute phase proteins in excess of the reference intervals (according to Heller and Johns (12))

Group	Hp (>1.242 g/L)	SAA > 2.050 mg/L
7/20 g	0	0
7/40 g	0	25.0
9/20 g	0	8.3
9/40 g	8.3	16.7
CTR	16.7	25.0
Maximum likelihood G-test P-value	0.190	0.197