Document Type : Research article
Authors
1
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut 71524, Egypt
2
Animal Nutrition, Animal Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the effect of adding different levels of a commercial microbial and enzyme mixture (Bactozym®) to the rations of Osimi lambs on growth performance, nutrients digestion, nutritional values, rumen fermentations, feed conversion ratio, and blood parameters. Fifteen Osimi lambs aged 5–6 months with an average body weight of 24.02 kg ± 1.5 were divided into 3 treatment groups of 5 males each. All experimental lambs were fed a basal diet consisting of a concentrated feed mixture and wheat straw at levels 2 and 1% of live body weight, respectively. Lambs in the first group were fed the basal diet without additives and considered a control group. While those in the second and third groups were fed the basal diet supplemented with Bactozym® at levels of 1 and 2 g/head per day, respectively. Blood samples were collected once at the end of the experiment from three lambs from each treatment to estimate some blood components. A digestion experiment was conducted at the end of the experiment to estimate the digestibility parameters and nutritional value of all experimental treatments. Rumen fluid samples were also collected once, three hours after eating, to measure the characteristics of the rumen fluid. The results indicated significant differences in total dry matter, feed conversion ratio, average daily body weight gain, pH values of rumen fluid, volatile fatty acid concentration, ammonia concentration, globulin, and glucose concentrations, albumin level, and liver enzyme levels between the treated and control groups. The second and third treatments showed improved feed conversion ratio, higher daily weight gain, and higher concentrations of volatile fatty acids in rumen fluid. The treatments also showed increased blood concentrations of globulin, and glucose, while ammonia concentration and albumin levels decreased. The levels of liver enzymes also decreased in the second and third treatments compared to the control group. The results obtained indicate that adding the microbial and enzymes mixture (Bactozyme®), available in Egyptian markets, to the lambs' diets at a rate of 1 g/h/day produced notable nutritional outcomes (i.e., the best nutritional and economic efficiency).
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