Effects of a Polyherbal Dietary Additive on Performance, Dietary Energetics, Carcass Traits, and Blood Metabolites of Finishing Lambs

oleh: Griselda Dorantes-Iturbide, José Felipe Orzuna-Orzuna, Alejandro Lara-Bueno, Luis Alberto Miranda-Romero, Germán David Mendoza-Martínez, Pedro Abel Hernández-García

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-05-01

Deskripsi

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of a polyherbal additive (PA) containing hydrolyzable tannins, flavonoids, and essential oils on productive performance, dietary energetics, carcass and meat characteristics, and blood metabolites of lambs in their finishing phase. Twenty-eight Pelibuey × Katahdin lambs (20.52 ± 0.88 kg body weight (BW)) were housed in individual pens and assigned to four treatments (<i>n</i> = 7) with different doses of PA: 0 (CON), 1 (PA1), 2 (PA2), and 3 (PA3) g of PA kg<sup>−1</sup> of DM for 56 days. Compared to the CON, lambs in PA1 treatment had higher average daily gain (<i>p</i> = 0.03), higher dietary energy utilization (<i>p</i> = 0.01), greater backfat thickness (<i>p</i> = 0.02), greater <i>Longissimus dorsi</i> muscle area (<i>p</i> = 0.01), and better feed conversion ratio (<i>p</i> = 0.02). PA supplementation did not affect (<i>p</i> > 0.05) dry matter intake, carcass yield, biometric measures, and meat chemical composition. All hematological and most of the blood biochemical parameters were similar in lambs of all treatments (<i>p</i> > 0.05). However, compared to the CON, lambs assigned to the PA3 treatment had lower serum urea concentration (<i>p</i> = 0.05) and higher serum albumin concentration (<i>p</i> = 0.03). In conclusion, low doses of PA could be used as a growth promoter in finishing lambs without affecting dry matter intake, carcass yield, meat chemical composition, and health status of the lambs. However, more <i>in vivo</i> research is needed to better understand the impact of bioactive compounds from PA used on productivity, metabolism, and health status of finishing lambs.