Growth Response of Growing Lambs Fed on Concentrate with or without Ionophores and Probiotics

The present study was planed to appraise the effect of concentrate with or without ionophore and probiotics on nutrients intake, nutrients digestibilities, blood metabolites, nitrogen balance, weight gain and its economic in twenty four weaned male Lohi lambs of four months of age. All lambs were randomly and equally divided into each of three groups. In this trial, dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) intake of % body weight were unaltered in concentrate (C), ionophores (CI) and probiotics (CP) diets. The DM, CP and ADF digestibilities were also nonsignificant (p>0.05) in all treatments, where as NDF digestibility was significantly (p<0.05) higher in CI and CP. Nitrogen balance was unaltered (p>0.05) in all lambs in all treatments. The blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine were also nonsignificant (p>0.05) in all treatments, whereas blood glucose was significantly higher (p<0.05) in CP than C and CI. The initial, final and daily weight gains were unaltered in all treatments (C, CI & CP). Similarly, economic of nutrition and feed to gain ration were also non-significant among all treatments in all lambs. © 2010 Friends Science Publishers