Özet:

This study was conducted to determine the potential effects of drinking water enriched with oxygen on fattening performance and dressing percentages of cattle in a commercial beef enterprise. In the study, a total of 20 male 9-10 month-old cattle, including 10 Simmental cattle and 10 Holstein cattle were used. The animals were equally divided into two groups. While the animals in the first group consumed current drinking water at the enterprise, those in the second group consumed drinking water enriched with oxygen. While the live weights of Holstein and Simmental cattle were 571.60 kg and 615.00 kg, respectively at the end of the semi-annual fattening period, the differences between breeds were statistically significant (P<0.05) for all periods, except for the first month. Daily live weight gains of Holstein cattle were detected as 633 g and 1133 g, respectively at the beginning (1st month) and the end (6th month) of the fattening period. The same values for Simmental breed were 933 g and 1233 g, respectively. The animals in the group consuming water enriched with oxygen had relatively higher values than the well water group for live weight change and daily live weight gains during the fattening periods. However, these differences were not statistically significant (P>0.05). In addition, the average feed conversion ratios during fattening were 7.18. and 7.26 respectively for the oxygen- enriched drinking water group and the well water group. It was determined that Simmental cattle (56.55%) had higher hot dressing percentage value than Holstein cattle (54.83%) and also those consuming water enriched with oxygen (56.02%) had higher dressing percentage value (55.36%) than those consuming well water. This was the first study on potential effects of drinking water with energized oxygen on fattening performance of cattle. Thereby, it is thought that the present study would provide a data archive for further studies.

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