Limited information is available on the serum minerals in response to dietary probiotic administration. Statically, no effect of treatment was observed on serum minerals viz., calcium, and phosphorus in Asian elephants. The mean serum calcium and phosphorus values observed for different groups were slightly lower than the normal reference ranges of Asian elephants (Brown and White, 1980 and Niemuller et al., 1990). However, phosphorus values were in corroboration with Gromadzka-Ostrowska et al. (1988) as well as Ca: P ratio was found to be well within the normal reference range (Niemuller et al., 1990).
The results of this study were in accordance with earlier findings of Jatkauskas and Vrotniakienė (2007) in cows for phosphorus and Kunavue and Lien (2012) in pigs, Hashemzadeh et al. (2013) in broiler chicks and Soleymanzadeh et al. (2017) in rats for calcium. On the contrary, significant differences were noticed in serum minerals by Shah et al. (2017) in rabbits and El-Sayed and Mousa (2019) in lambs.
Thus, it can be concluded from the observations of the present study that probiotics L. acidophilus and S. cerevisiae can be safely incorporated up to 109 CFU/g concentrate for every 50 kg body weight/day into the diet of elephants without affecting the biochemical profile.
5.9 Body measurements and body condition score
There were no statistical differences regarding the body measurements and body condition score (BCS) in the Asian elephants of different groups. However, the purpose of this study was to determine the inter-relationship between various body measurements. Heart girth and front foot circumference showed a proportionate relationship with body weight and height, respectively. Weight-predicting methods based on morphometric measurements have been used in various species such as zebu cattle (Bos), black rhino (Diceros) and elephants for the purposes of nutritional evaluation, population management, and drug dosage calculations in situations where actual weighing is not possible (Freeman and King, 1969, Sreekumar and Nirmalan, 1989a and Lesosky et al., 2012). Heart girth has been shown to be the most accurate predictor of BW (Hile et al., 1997 and Lesosky et al., 2012). Sukumar et al. (1988) observed an elephant’s height as twice the circumference of front foot (CFF) measured at the sole. The body weights recorded in all the three groups at different periods showed more or less similar results. The BCS results revealed that 14 out of 18 elephants (77.78%) and 4 out of 18 (22.22%) had BCS-4 and BCS-3, respectively. No elephants had BCS-1, 2, and 5. The overall BCS recorded was 3.78, and the trend of BW and BCS revealed that all the elephants were in good condition but showed a tendency toward fat condition. Overfeeding and obesity are common problems mentioned in the literature on zoo animal nutrition (Ange et al., 2001, Schwitzer and Kaumanns, 2001, Clauss and Hatt, 2006, and Hatt and Clauss, 2006) in herbivores. The problem is generally linked to a diet that comprises low proportions of high-fiber feeds, which exceeds the species’ caloric requirement.
The results of this study are consistent with the observations of Marelli et al. (2020) in boxer dogs, in which no differences in body weight were found; however, dogs in the LACTO group showed a significantly higher BCS.
Thus, it can be concluded from the observations of the present study that probiotics L. acidophilus and S. cerevisiae can be safely incorporated up to 109 CFU/g concentrate for every 50 kg body weight/day into the diet of elephants without affecting the body measurements and body condition score.