On the efficacy, innocuity and residual depletion of flavomycin in confined steers

Abstract

Flavomycin is a non-ionophore additive little studied in finishing confined cattle. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of flavomycin on productive performance, ingestive behavior, carcass traits and biochemical parameters of steers finished in confinement. 32 whole steers, ½ Angus e ½ Nellore blood, from the same herd, with a mean age of 11 ± 1.5 months and initial body weight of 337 ± 6 kg were evaluated. The experiment was a randomized block design, consisting of two treatments and eight replications, as follows: Diet without flavomycin (control) and Diet with flavomycin (0.5 g FLAVIMPEX®80 animal day^-1). There was no difference between treatments, the average dry matter intake of the animals was 10.03 kg day^-1, feed efficiency was 0.158 kg, average daily gain was 1.593 kg day^-1, apparent diet digestibility was 61.69%. The use of flavomycin was not effective in animal performance, and caused no changes in ingestive behavior and carcass traits of the animals. Total Plasma Protein, Aspartate amino-transferase and creatinine were lower for animals supplemented with flavomycin compared to the control group. In relation to the experimental period, there was a reduction in the levels of Total Plasma Protein, an increase in albumin, Gamma-Glutamyl Transferase and urea in cattle, but all remained within the reference range for the species.
Keywords: Animal performance; Biochemical markers; Food additive; Ingestive behavior.