THE BIOAVAILABILITY OF PHOSPHOROUS FROM BONE MEAL AND TRIPLE SUPER PHOSPHATE AND ITS EFFECTS ON INDIGENOUS GROWING CATTLE

The bioavailability of phosphorous, and blood serum and rumen liquor P level was studied in indigenous growing cattle by feeding bone meal and Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) with control diet. Nine indigenous growing cattle (live weight of 164 ± 21 kg) were randomly assigned in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) to three dietary treatments, consisted of a basal diet (T 0 ) of 0.16% P and experimental diets supplemented with bone meal (T 1 ) and triple super phosphate (T 2 ) to provide P level of 0.44%. All diets were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric. Three cannulated animals were used for rumen liquor P level study by feeding three diets. Apparent absorption and balance of P were significantly (P 0.05). Bioavailability of P of control diet (37.41%), bone meal (81.45%) and triple super phosphate (80.49%) were significantly differed (P 0.05) with no difference between bone meal and triple super phosphate. The results suggested that the bioavailability of P from bone meal and TSP was high and dietary supplementation of P with bone meal and TSP improved P retention and blood serum P level. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjas.v37i2.9882 BJAS 2008; 37(2): 58-65