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Effect of Different Energy Levels of Diets on the Performance, Nutrient Digestibilities and Carcass Characteristics of Lambs

Research Abstract
Eighteen male lambs (initial weight 30±1.3 kg and 5-6 months) were used in this experiment to study the effect of energy levels on the performance, nutrient digestibility and carcass traits. Total experimental period was 90 days. The animals were allotted into 3 groups, 6 animals per each. The first group was fed a medium energy (ME) diet (3.20 Mcal/kg diet), while the second group fed on diet contained high energy (HE) level ( 3.50 Mcal/kg diet) and the third group fed on low energy (LE) diet ( 2.90 Mcal/kg diet). All diets contained 14.70% crude protein in dry matter. The average daily feed intake was affected significantly (P0.05) by the level of energy and lambs group fed on low energy ration had significantly (P0.05) increased feed intake compared with other treatment groups. Lambs that received the highest energy level diet had a higher significant (P0.05) average daily gain than that received the medium and low energy diets. Feed conversion was deteriorated in lambs group fed on low energy diet. The digestion coefficient of nutrients and total digestible nutrient were increased significantly (P0.05) with high energy diet. Dressing percentage and body fat was increased with feeding high dietary energy. It could be concluded that the high dietary energy produced the best performance, nutrient digestibilities and carcass traits of lambs.
Research Authors
Abdel-Baset Nasr Sayed
Research Journal
IJAVMS
Research Pages
PP.472-476
Research Vol
Vol. 5, Issue 5
Research Year
2011