Effect of vitamin E-selenium administration during late gestation on productive and reproductive performance in dairy buffaloes and on growth performance of their calves

The present study was planned to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin E-selenium administration during last month of gestation in improving the productive and reproductive performance of dairy buffaloes and on growth performance of their calves. For this purpose, 40 Nili-Ravi buffaloes in their last month of pregnancy were randomly divided into two groups. The buffaloes in group I were treated with 10 ml of vitamin E-Se (Farvet Holland), containing 50 mg of vitamin E and 0.5 mg of sodium selenite/ml) intramuscularly on day 30 and 15 prior to expected date of parturition, while buffaloes in group II served as control. All the experimental buffaloes were kept under similar management and feeding conditions. The data on productive performance showed that the colostrum production was 22% higher (P less than 0.05) in treated buffaloes (14.15 plus minus 3.29L) as compared to their counterparts (11.51 plus minus 3.39L). The average milk production of first 90 days of lactation was 7% h