Effects of Organic Selenium and Probiotic Supplementation on the Performance of Indigenous and Crossbred Dairy Cows during Summer in the Tropics

S. No.

Reviewer-1 comments

Authors response / reply

1

Line 34:I suggest toout organic selenium already find in title, and to change for organic mineral for example;

Changes made in text.

2

Line 52: There is no introduction of the subject "minerals" in the paragraph that begins in line 52, I believe that a simple text indicating that oxidative stress caused by heat for example can be minimized by changes in diet, and these in turn with inclusion minerals, such as organics and probiotics. With emphasis on literature;

Already described in detail in introduction part regarding organic selenium as required in later text.

3

Line 81: What mechanism for improvement in milk production, or reduction of heat stress with inclusion of minerals and probiotics? this would be an issue to be raised in the introduction that helps justify the work in terms of metabolic profile assessment;

 Justification mentioned in discussion part as asked (for example- By boosting feed digestibility and controlling the antioxidant system of dairy animals, organic Se raises milk production).

4

Line 109: To explain better about "parity", for example, first, second or more, because do not have information about age;

Included in text as suggested.

5

Line 128: The estimation of NDF and ADF is the original method?

Method reference mentioned in text.

6

Line 153: describe acronyms: SGOT, SGPT, ALP

Needful done in text as suggested.

7

Line 168-179: THI values confirm that the environment could provide stress? Important to emphasize.

Described in material and methods and discussion part of text.

8

Line 257-266: The objectives are to indicate that dietary changes can alter metabolic status and reduce heat stress without interfering with production. This is in the justification and due to the indexes of the results there is no need to include it in the discussion. I suggest removing the first paragraph from the discussion, as it is implied.

Changes not accepted.

9

Line 385-393: I understand that some results were improved without affecting metabolic status. So, what would be the mechanism of action of inclusion in the diet to justify its use? which studies? just a suggestion of a metabolic pathway that has not been studied for a conclusion.

Possible mechanism along with work done by other researchers already mentioned in discussion part of concern parameters with our findings. No change required further.

S. No.

Reviewer-2 comments

Authors response / reply

1

L20 Mention "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" in italics and full name at the first mention and in material methods then abbreviated it in the whole manuscript

Needful done in the text as suggested.

2

L23 add space after "groups"

Needful done in the text as suggested.

3

L26 add a dose of organic selenium and yeast, and

superscript 10

Needful done in the text as suggested.

4

L28 replace mild with significant or non-significant

Needful done in the text as suggested.

5

In the introduction plz take care of space between words and sentences.

Needful done in the text as suggested.

6

L76 replace T-AOC with TAC and add it and other abbreviations between the brackets

Needful done in the text as suggested.

7

In the introduction: mention literature about the

combination of organic selenium and Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Not available in combination as per our knowledge.

8

L107 mention kg BW after the weight of cows

Needful done in the text as suggested.

9

L108 replace covariate with adaptation

Needful done in the text as suggested.

10

L109 should mention the average parity and milk yield of two groups which were divided into indigenous and crossbred cows (control and treatment)

Needful done in the text as suggested.

11

L109 mention the stage of lactation

Needful done in the text as suggested.

12

L113 My greatest perplexity concerns the treatment is only one group

Needful done in the text as suggested.

13

L114 Why were these doses of organic selenium and yeast (4 g/day) used?

Based on the literature surveyed standard dose finalized for the said experiment for use as in combination.

14

L116 replace Diets were isonitrogenous and isocaloric with "All diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous and isocaloric"

Needful done in the text as suggested.

15

L116 replace as per with "according to"

Needful done in the text as suggested.

16

L118 replace fortnightly with biweekly and in the whole manuscript

Needful done in the text as suggested.

17

L120 Add brackets after Wildman et al. [28]

Needful done in the text as suggested.

18

L129 in Table 1 what are the numbers of experimental diets refer to???????

Needful done in the text as suggested.

19

L131 Rephrase "Cows were milked twice daily (at 0430 and 1600 h)"

Needful done in the text as suggested.

20

L141 the blood from cattle did not collect from the ear vein???

Checked and corrected in the text as suggested.

21

In the statistical analysis, I suggest that the analysis of two-way ANOVA was more proper where there were two factors; 1st-factor treatment and 2nd-factor breed.

Not accepted

22

L173 Replace percent with % and in the whole manuscript.

Needful done in the text as suggested.

23

L187 when the enhancement and decreasing percentages are lower than 10 %, are negligible... also in the whole manuscript. And if there is a significant result, prefer to mention significantly rather than mention the percentage

Needful done in the text as suggested.

24

In Table 3, don't mention the initial weight, that previously mentioned in the material and methods section

It should be in table to see the comparable changes by viewer. Changes not accepted.

25

Replace the final weight of cows (these aren't growing) with the change in weight or gain weight if they aren't reaching mature weight

Changes not accepted. No differences occur for such change.

26

In Table 3, Don't mention R: C and DMI, these are the previous mention in the material and methods section.

Changes not accepted as suggested.

27

In Table 3, mention breaths per minute (bpm) as the measurement unit of respiration rate

Needful done in the table as suggested.

28

It prefers to divide Table 6 into two tables (Serum

antioxidant profile and hormonal profile in a separate table

Changes not accepted. Not required to bifurcate the table unnecessarily.

29

In the introduction and discussion sections, plz update the references

Updated reference included.

30

L 276 write it previous the literature "The current outcome was consistent with the findings of the researchers mentioned above"

Needful done in the table as suggested.

31

L 297 replace rose with increased or was higher

Needful done in the table as suggested.

32

L 283-314 rephrase the discussion

Needful done in the text as suggested.

33

Could you explain why the globulin was greater than the albumin in your study?

The data of albumin and globulin is within the normal range and non-significant among the group. However, slight increment of globulin value in treatment group reflected better immunity.

34

L377 replace reducing with reduction or redox

Needful done in the text as suggested.

35

L 391 -392 Delete "However, supplementation helps to

sustain the productivity without affecting the body physiology" and rephrase the conclusion

Needful done in the text as suggested.

S. No.

Reviewer-3 comments

Authors response / reply

1

Line 91: remove ")".

Needful done in the text as suggested.

2

Line 112: separate "supplementedwithorganic"

Needful done in the text as suggested.

3

Line 186: separate " wasfound"

Needful done in the text as suggested.

4

Please check units in Table 5 "(cumm)"

Checked and correction made in the table.

5

Line 262. Please check "while THI values between 68 and 68"

Checked and correction made in the text.

6

Line 387: separate "probioticsin"

Needful done in the text as suggested.

7

Major Issues: The scientific work is of interest, of practical importance and has been carried out with a large number of measurements. However, I believe that what is really original about it is that they found higher levels of cortisol and lipid peroxidation in the treated animals. Despite this, these findings have been little discussed.

Agreed. As increased levels of cortisol and lipid peroxidation in the treated animals is quite interesting and intriguing. However, it is difficult to make any conclusions based on single/spot sampling as often it is the amplitude of increase/decrease in cortisol levels as compared to base levels in the same group of animals which is more meaningful. We accept the limitation of the study as serial blood samples were not collected and therefore it is difficult to conclude if the differences in cortisol levels among treatment and control groups are the result of dietary treatments or the two groups differed in in their baseline levels.