SUSTAINABLE ECOLOGICAL HEALTH OF LIVESTOCK FARMS, THE IMPACT OF A BETULIN-CONTAINING FEED ADDITIVE ON CLINICAL AND HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS IN BREEDING CALVES AND DAIRY COWS

The study was conducted at the dairy complexes of the breeding farm of the Agricultural Enterprise Kolkhoz "Soznatelny," Zubtsovsky District, Tver Region (Russia), in collaboration with the Department of Disease Diagnostics, Therapy, Obstetrics, and Animal Reproduction, and the Medical and Diagnostic Center of the Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology -MVA named after K.I.Skryabin (Russia).Betulin was administered orally to each animal in the experimental group at a dose of 10 mg/kg of body weight with water, once daily for 14 days.Clinical examinations and hematological analyses were conducted at the experiment's beginning and end to evaluate betulin's effects on the animals and exclude concomitant diseases.An Abacus Junior Vet automatic hematology analyzer (Austria) was used for blood analysis.Parameters assessed included erythrocyte, leukocyte, platelet, lymphocyte, basophil, monocyte, eosinophil, and segmented neutrophil counts, as well as hemoglobin levels, color index, anisocytosis index, and hematocrit values.The results demonstrated that betulin positively influenced the hematological parameters of five-and ten-month-old breeding calves.The drug significantly increased the number of peripheral blood lymphocytes, alleviated neutrophilic leukocytosis, and reliably reduced neutrophil, monocyte, and total leukocyte counts, all within the physiological norm.These findings suggest that betulin stimulates lymphocyte proliferation and enhances phagocytosis, leading to inflammation resolution, a decrease in neutrophil and monocyte levels, and an increase in lymphocyte counts.The observed reduction in erythrocyte and hemoglobin levels by the end of the experiment in all experimental groups was likely due to weather conditions.On the first day of the experiment, intense heat may have caused polycythemia, while cooler temperatures on the final day could have mitigated this effect.