Performance of Holstein-Friesian calves drinking desalinated water in the preweaning period

Background: High salinity of drinking water can adversely affect health and productive performance of calves during artificial rearing. Objective: To evaluate the effect of drinking water total dissolved salts (TDS) content on productive performance of Holstein-Friesian calves during artificial rearing. Methods: Twenty-nine newborn Holstein-Friesian calves weighing 39 +/- 0.94 kg at birth were randomly assigned to two treatment groups for 56 d. Treatment 1 (n=14) consisted of drinking water with 1,469 +/- 75 mg L-1 TDS, while treatment 2 (n=15) used drinking water from the same source but filtered by reverse osmosis to contain 107 +/- 31 mg L-1 TDS. Results: Water intake was numerically affected by TDS concentration, increasing 13% (p>0.08) when drinking low-TDS water (3,554 versus 3,088 ml d(-1)). Feed intake (dry basis) decreased 26% (500 versus 676 g d(-1); p<0.01), and average daily weight gain increased 29% (434 versus 335 g d(-1); p<0.05) for calves drinking low-TDS water. Treatment 2 resulted in 10% higher body weight compared to treatment 1 (64.3 versus 58.6 kg; p<0.01). Digestibility of dry matter and protein was not affected (p>0.05) by TDS content in the drinking water. Conclusion: Desalinated water improves productive performance of Holstein-Friesian calves during artificial rearing.