EFFECT OF DIETARY LACTURE YEAST SUPPLEMENT ON PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF EGYPTIAN RAHMANI EWES AND THEIR LAMBS. | ||||
| Journal of Animal and Poultry Production | ||||
| Article 2, Volume 3, Issue 5, May 2012, Page 215-226 PDF (310.08 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jappmu.2012.82789 | ||||
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| Author | ||||
| A. M. Abdel-Gawad | ||||
| Sheep and Goat Research Department, Animal Production Research Institute (APRI), Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| This study was carried out on Rahmani sheep to investigate the effect of using Lacture yeast supplement diet on feed dry matter intake, some blood constituents and productive performance of ewes, such as, changes in live body weight, still birth, abortion, litter size, lambing rate, daily body gain of lambs, kilograms of lambs produced per ewe in addition to productive performance of their lambs. Thirty three pregnant Rahmani ewes at the third parity, of 56.73 ± 1.54 kg average live body weight, and at 105 days of pregnancy were divided according to age and weight into three equal groups (G1, G2 and G3) and fed according to NRC allowances, where diets contained 0, 1 and 2 g Lacture/head/day, respectively. After ewes weaned their lambs, eighteen out of the 19 born male lambs were allotted according to weight and litter size, and divided into three equal treatments (T1, T2 and T3), and were fed the same treatments as their dams, until 180 days of age. The feed dry matter intake (DM) was better in G2 and G3 supplement groups compared with control (G1). Changes in live body weight of ewes during late pregnancy and suckling period was not significantly affected by treatments, but with numerically positive effect with supplement groups, G2 (9.27 kg) and G3 (9.46) compared with control (G1) (10.0 kg), respectively. Results indicated that yeast supplemented groups had significantly higher serum glucose, cholesterol, total lipids, total protein, albumin, globulin, urea-N and both GOT and GPT than the control. Therefore, the present blood parameters of supplemented treated groups may indicate the beneficial effect of the supplements on metabolism and the present data were within the normal ranges for healthy sheep. No abortion, still birth and mortality cases were recorded in all groups. The data indicated that litter size was increased (1.0, 1.09 and 1.27) with increasing the level of Lacture (0, 1 and 2 g/head/day) in three groups G1, G2 and G3, respectively. Results indicated that birth weight was significantly higher in G2 and G3 Lacture supplemented diets being, 2.92 kg and 3.11 kg (1 and 2 g/h/d) compared with control (2.68 kg), respectively. Also, weaning weight was significantly higher with supplement groups G2 and G3 (12.88 kg and 13.82 kg) compared to 11.45 kg with control (G1), respectively. This was reflected on daily body gain (DBG), being 165.9 g and 178.6 g with G2 and G3 compared 146.2 g with G1, respectively. The improvements in DBG by treatment G2 and G3 were 13.5% and 22.2%, respectively. Thus, out put measured as kilograms born and weaned per ewe significantly improved with Lacture supplementation (G2 and G3), being 3.18 kg/ewe and 3.95 kg/ewe vs. 2.68 kg/ewe with G1 (control), and as kilograms weaned per ewe, being 14.05 kg/ewe and 17.8 kg/ewe with G2 and G3 vs. 11.45 kg/ewe with G1, respectively. Moreover, results indicated a significant effect of treatment of supplemented Lacture on lambs performance. Data indicated that the live body weight of lambs at 180 days of age were significantly higher 27.0 kg and 28.08 kg with Lacture supplementation 1 g/head/day and 2 g/head/day (T2 and T3) compared with control (T1) (25.92 kg). Therefore, daily body gain of lambs was increased (105.6 g, 114.6 g and 123.6 g) with increasing the level of Lacture (0, 1 and 2 g/head/day) in T1, T2 and T3, respectively. Accordingly, the economic efficiency was higher due to using Lacture at levels of 1 and 2 g/head/day compared with the control one (0g). | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Rahmani sheep; Lacture yeast; Lambs performance; Feed intake; Mortality rate; Litter size; Lambing rate | ||||
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