Abstract

    Thirty  two Sahiwal cows (Bos indicus) in the last trimester of pregnancy were used to evaluate the effect of immunostimulation on some production traits in the control and treated dams and calves born to them. The cows were divided into four equal groups. Group-I served as untreated control while groups-II, III and IV were treated with levamisole hydrochloride (0.5 mg/Kg body weight orally), vitamin E-selenium (10 ml intramuscularly per cow) and BCG (Bacille Calmette Guerin) vaccine (0.5 ml subcutaneously per cow), respectively. These immunostimulants were given twice with one week interval at about 60 days prior to expected date of calving. Some production traits, i.e., milk yield and lactation length of the control and treated dams while birth weight, weaning weight and growth rate upto weaning of calves born to these dams were determined. Milk yield in Sahiwal cows was the lowest (1032.63 litres) in control group and highest (1341.63 litres) in levamisole treated group while lactation length in both these groups was 224.63 and 266.00 days, respectively. The birth weight was the lowest (21.38 kg) in the calves born to control group of cows while weaning weight and growth rate were the lowest (48.33 kg and 0.302 kg/day) in the calves born to BCG treated group of cows. The highest values of birth weight, weaning weight and growth rate (24.38 kg, 53.86 kg and 0.330 kg/day) were observed in the calves born to levamisole treated group of Sahiwal cows. The differences between all the groups for all the production traits recorded were statistically non-significant except one trait, i.e., growth rate which was significantly higher in the calves born to levamisole treated cows as compared to those born to BCG treated dams.