Feeding a clay mineral-based feed additive improves performance, eating behavior and liver health by feedlot beef cattle fed a high-concentrate diet

Abstract

Feedlot cattle are continuously exposed to liver health challenges during the finishing period, either due to high-energy diet intake or mycotoxin presence, which can cause liver damage, impairing hepatic metabolism and overall performance. This study evaluated the impacts of adding clay mineral-based feed additive with plant extracts (CMFA) on performance, eating behavior, carcass traits, blood metabolites, and liver health of feedlot Nellore cattle. The trial was a completely randomized design, animal was considered an experimental unit. Forty-eight 22-month-old Nellore bulls (402.50 kg ± 4.95 kg) were fed in a collective pen, containing six electronic bunks with automatic selective doors for individual feeding and feed intake monitoring according to two treatments: Control (without CMFA) and CMFA (1.5 g/kg of dry matter [DM]). The study lasted 96 days. CMFA-fed animals had greater final body weight (P = 0.04), average daily gain (P = 0.05), final hot carcass weight (HCW; P = 0.05), and HCW daily gain (P = 0.05) compared to the control group. In addition, feeding CMFA altered the feeding behavior, reducing total feeding time and the number of meals, whereas increasing the DM intake rate. CMFA-fed cattle demonstrated lower aspartate aminotransferase serum concentrations and reduced histopathological scores of inflammations and liver injury, including inflammatory infiltrate, hepatitis, focal necrosis, bile stasis, and bile duct hyperplasia, demonstrating better hepatic tissue integrity. Thus, adding a clay mineral-based feed additive to a high-concentrate diets can improve performance by mitigating inflammation and improving liver health of feedlot Nellore cattle.