Effect of different sources of roughages on some blood components of Awassi lambs

Abstract EN

The aim of this experiment was to find out the effect of urea treated wheat straw on Awassi lambs performance and some blood parameters.

Eighteen individual Awassi lambs 6 months old and live body weights ranged 26-29 kg were used.

They were divided into three equal groups fed either untreated wheat straw 0% (T1), urea treated wheat straw 7% (T2) or green alfalfa (T3) plus concentrate.

Results showed that urea- treatment of wheat straw improved crud protein content of the straw .Group (T3) shows higher final live body weight (42.20kg) fallowed by group (T2) which shows higher water consumption (4782.89ml/day) compared with other groups.

Total feed intake and feed conversion ratio were higher in groups T1 (62.2 kg and 4.813) respectively and T3 (62.00 kg and 4.015) respectively than group T2 (60.90 kg and 4.227) respectively.

Blood glucose, serum albumin, serum total protein and cholesterol in all groups were in the normal range although cholesterol in T1 (41.650 mg/dL), T2 (51.975 mg/dL) and T3 (62.468 mg/dL) show minor elevation than normal range reported by other studies.

Differences among the three groups in blood glucose levels were significant in day 30 after the treatment where group T2 (110.025 mg/dL) have higher values when compared with T1 (95.72 mg/dL) and T3 (88.903 mg/dL), while in day 70 differences are not significant.

The same trends where shown in cholesterol, total protein and albumin.

Serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase and serum glutamate pyruvat transaminase where higher in group T2 (37.500 IU/L), (30.500 IU/L) respectively when compared with other groups; but values where in the normal rang, but these values where decrease in their levels with time.