Use of body measurements offers advantages over subjective methods of visual assessment and scoring, considered as an index of an animal’s health.
4.9.1. Body measurements
The length, height, hind girth and foot circumference were recorded at the end of the experiment and have been presented in Table 4.65 and 4.66 and depicted in Figure 4.39. The overall mean and SEM values of length, height, hind girth and foot circumference were found to be 729.83 ± 11.24, 251.83 ± 3.86, 429.72 ± 5.93 and 125.03 ± 1.45 centimetres in control T1, T2 and T3 groups, respectively. The statistical analysis of data of length, height, hind girth and foot circumference could not reveal any significant effect of the treatment.
The overall mean and SEM values of heart girth and body weight were expressed as cm and kg as presented in Table 4.67 and Figure 4.40 and 4.41 were found to be 379.50 ± 7.41 and 3495 ± 133.34 on 0 day, 380.50 ± 7.14 and 3513 ± 128.59 on 20th day, 381.78 ± 6.86 and 3536 ± 123.45 on 50th day and 382.17 ± 6.81 and 3543 ± 122.55 on 60th day, respectively. The results of statistical analysis of data of heart girth and body weight as shown in Table 4.68 could not reveal any significant effect of the treatment.
Table 4.65: Mean and SEM values of length, height, hind girth and foot circumference (in cm).