Among the most important issues of food safety, which conducted an extensive international discussion, is the use in livestock of drugs, such as recombinant bovine growth hormone, or somatotropin, and, in particular, ractopamine, stimulating the growth of cattle, pigs and poultry. Ractopamine is used in veterinary medicine to increase the meatiness of the carcass. Ractopamine improves feed conversion, reduces body fat through lipolysis and an intense muscle-building. In the United States, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada and many other countries, ractopamine is allowed for usage as growth stimulator in livestock. However, in most countries of the European Union the use of ractopamine is forbidden. In this regard, it seems very important to develop effective and safe drugs that can stimulate the production of endogenous somatotropic hormone (STH). We propose to use for this purpose Gamavit – well-studied veterinary medicine stimulating metabolism and widely used by veterinary specialists in the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus and some other countries. The aim of this work was to study the effect of Gamavit on STH production in suckling piglets and lambs. Previously it was shown elsewhere that Gamavit induced 2-fold increase in the STH blood level in calves. The experiment was done using 30 suckling piglets of Landrace breed at the age of 0 to 7 days and 10 newborn lambs of the Stavropol breed. All animals were kept in identical conditions, they were fed the same balanced diet. The study was conducted according to the following protocol: The piglets of the 1st group (control) received 0.9% NaCl solution at a dose of 0.5 ml/kg intramuscularly on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th days of the experiment. Piglets of group 2 (experimental) were inoculated with Gamavit at a dose of 0.5 ml/kg intramuscularly on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th days of the experiment. Lambs were inoculated with Gamavit at a dose of 0.5 ml/kg of body weight on 7th, 14th and 21st days after birth. Using method of enzyme immunoassay we shown that during the study level of STH in the experimental group of piglets inoculated with Gamavit gradually increased from 8.5 mIU/l before the experiment to 14.3 mIU/l on the 5th day. In the control group it ranged from 7.5 mIU/l to 10.2 mIU\l. At the end of the experiment greatest body weight gain was observed in the experimental group and amounted 45.450 g compared with 26,700 g in the control group piglets. In the experimental group of newborn lambs Gamavit induced raise in the STH serum level 2 from 6.5 mIU/l at day 0 to 13.1 mIU/l at day 21. Thus, Gamavit, unlike synthetic growth hormone, ractopamine and other beta-agonists used in livestock, induces the production of endogenous STH, which stimulates growth of the animal, while being safe and rapidly metabolizing on its own metabolic pathway.
Evaluation of Immunoglobulin G Absorption from Goat Colostrum by Newborn Piglets