Abstract
To study the effect of tap water with magnetic treatment on drinking water intake (DWI), dry-matter intake (DMI), digestibility of dry matter and nitrogen balance of sheep, 8 ewes were individually kept for 288 days in a metabolism crate including a 120-day preliminary period. A half of them were given water with magnetic treatment for 168 days of which the period was divided into 6 treatment periods of 28 days. Daily record was taken for barn temperature together with DWI and DMI of individual animal in the period of 288 days. Metabolism trials were carried out in the last 7 days of each treatment period. The determination was made on the concentration of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) on the day before the last day of each period and live weight on the last day. The magnetic treatment of tap water was done by the use of an apparatus of magnetic field (PANOX G30). The quantity of water drunk, dry-matter ingested or nitrogen retention was expressed on the basis of metabolic body size/day (kg0.75·day). Statistical analyses were carried out by the t-test comparing mean values of parameters for control and treatment groups at each treatment period. The level of significance was tested at p< 0.05.
At preliminary period, mean values with standard deviation for live weight, DMI and digestibility of dry matter were as follows for animals in control group, 71±7kg, 51±7g/kg0.75·day and 67.1±3.7%, and in treatment group, 71±16kg, 51±6g/kg0.75·day and 66.5±1.2%, respectively. There were no significant differences between two groups for DWI, DMI, digestibility of dry matter or nitrogen, nitrogen retention and BUN. There was, however, a tendency to be different pattern in the changes with barn temperature in DWI and DMI between both groups, which suggests that a possibility of water with magnetic treatment cause a difference in a response of animals. The further study is needed to clarify animal response to water with magnetic treatment.
