Effects of alfalfa meal contained Selenium and Cobalt in diet on digestibility and production performance of Wistar rats

The effects of high content of SeCo in alfalfa meal mixed with diets on intake, digestibility, daily gain and feed conversion rate of Wistar rats were studied. Compared with control, alfalfa meal contained SeCo increased pepsin activities, intake and feed conversion efficiency, and decrease gastric remains rate of feed. No any harmful effects were found thorough the experiment when the diets contained 4%-6% of the alfalfa. As the content of the alfalfa increase from 4% to 6% in diet, pepsin activities increased by from 18.1% (P0.01) to 19.8% (P0.01), gastric remains rate of feed decrease by from 7.1% (P0.05) to 9.8% (P0.05), propulsive proportion of small intestine increased by 1.9% (P0.05) to 9.9% (P0.05).