Hamdy Mohamed Khattab1, Azza Mohamed Badr2, Mahmoud Mohamed Abdelfarrag3* and Abdalla Mansour Singer3
1Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University,
Egypt
2Regional Center for Food and Feed, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt
3Animal and Poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural
Resources, Aswan University, Egypt
*Corresponding Author: Mahmoud Mohamed Abdelfarrag, Animal and Poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Aswan University, Egypt.
Received: July 26, 2022; Published: August 11, 2022
The present study was aimed to compare the effect of two mixtures of medicinal plants as feed additives on the lamb’s perfor- mance. The first additive consisted of a 1:1:1 Rosemary, Thyme, and Peppermint mixture (RTPM). While, the second additive consist- ed of a 1:1:1 Lemongrass, Parsley, and Coriander mixture (LPCM). Twelve male Saidi lambs of 20.49 ± 0.76 kg body weight (BW) were randomly allocated into three groups. The first group received a control diet (concentrate-to-forage ratio: 70:30) without additives, the second group received a control diet supplemented with 1.5% RTPM on a dry matter (DM) basis, and the third group received control diet supplemented with 1.5% LPCM on a DM basis. The experiment lasted for 150 days. The results showed that RTPM had lowered DMI (P = 0.0692) while the LPCM had higher DMI as compared the to control. The supplementation of RTPM or LPCM did not have a significant effect on nutrients digestibility and their nutritive value. Similarly, ruminal pH, ruminal temperature and total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) were not affected (P > 0.05) by RTPM or LPCM, while ammonia-N (P = 0.0043), and total nitrogen (P < 0.0001) were higher for RTPM and LPCM than Control. The average daily gain (ADG), total weight gains (TWG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of the lambs receiving RTPM or LPCM rations were greater (P ≤ 0.0057) than the control diet. The economic efficiency was improved by the RTPM addition (P < 0.0001) while the LPCM diet decreased economic efficiency compared to the control.
Keywords: Medicinal Plants; Growth Performance; Lamb; Economic Efficiency
Citation: Hamdy Mohamed Khattab., et al. “The Supplementary Effect of Some Medicinal Plant Mixtures on the Productive Performance of Saidi Lambs". Acta Scientific Veterinary Sciences 4.9 (2022): 03-12.
Copyright: © 2022 Hamdy Mohamed Khattab., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.