Impact of Siberian Larch Dihydroquercetin or Dry Distilled Rose Petals as Feed Supplements on Lamb’s Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Blood Count Parameters

The objective of this study was to determine the impact of dihydroquercetin from Siberian larch and dry distilled rose petals (DDRP) on growth performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters of lambs from the Bulgarian dairy synthetic population sheep. For the purpose of the study 30 clinically healthy male lambs aged 65 days, levelled by live weight were used. One control group (C) fed 50 days with ground al-falfa + granulated compound feed and two experimental groups (D) and (R) fed on the same diet supple-mented either with 7.5 mg dihydroquercetin/kg/day or with 545 mg DDRP/kg/day respectively, were stud-ied. The dihydroquercetin feeding increases the fat content (P≤0.01) of lamb carcasses but adversely affects their conformation. No significant differences (P>0.05) were found between 1st h and 24th h post-mortem pH of control group C and experimental group D. Compared to them the pH values of the experimental group R were by 0.14-0.15 pH units lower (P≤0.05). No significant differences (P>0.05) were found in the blood count of the three studied groups of lambs. Exceptions were made for haemoglobin (HGL) in the experimental group D which were with 6-7 g/L higher (P≤0.05) than these in control group C and experi-mental group R and the blood glucose (GLU) in the experimental group R which is with 0.25-0.28 mmol/L lower than determined in control group C and experimental group D.