The objective of the present experiment was to evaluate the effect of substitution of barley grain with dried sugar beet pulp (SBP) on venous blood gas (VBG) of Holstein steers. Four Holstein steers with initial body weight of 368 ± 8 kg fitted with ruminal fistulae were used in a 4×4 Latin square design (28 days of each period). Basal experimental diet consisted of 15% corn silage, 20% alfalfa hey, 33% barley grain, 17% soybean meal, 13.8% wheat bran, 0.5% calcium carbonate, 0.2% salt, and 0.5% mineral and vitamin premix on dry matter basis. Barley grain was substituted with SBP as 0.0%, 33%, 66% or 100% (SBP0.0, SBP33, SBP66, and SBP100, respectively). Steers were fed 9.5 kg of DM as total mixed ration twice daily at 0800 and 1600 h. At the last day of each experimental period, blood samples were taken from Jugular vein after 4 h the morning feeding. Samples were immediately analyzed using Stat Profile pHOx Plus blood analyzer (Nova Biomedical, USA) for pH, CO2 pressure (pCO2), O2 pressure (pO2), oxygen saturation (O2Ct), base excess of extracellular fluid (BEecf), base excess of blood (BEb), bicarbonate (HCO3-), total carbon dioxide(TCO2), and total hemoglobin (Hb). Data were analyzed using the GLM procedure of SAS (Y = Mean + Treatment + Animal + Period + residual) and the means compared by the Duncan test (P< 0.05). There were no significant differences (P> 0.05) between treatments in any of the blood biochemical parameters studied. Means of pH, pCO2, pO2, O2Ct, BEecf, BEb, HCO3-, TCO2, and Hb were 7.335, 47.28 mmHg, 29.08 mmHg, 6.53 Ml/dl, -0.56 mmol/L, 0.26 mmol/L, 25.47 mmol/L, 26.94 mmol/L, and 8.97 g/dl, respectively. Results of the present study demonstrated that partial substitution of barley grain with sugar beet pulp in Holstein steers did not significantly affect blood pH and VBG values.

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