Effect of Biological Additives on Growth Indices and Physiological Responses of Weaned Najdi Ram Lambs

This study was carried out at Alkhurmah Governorate; Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).Thirty weaned males of Najdi sheep aged between 3-4 months with average body weight 22.87±.0.18 kg were used for study. Animals were allotted to three comparable groups (10 lambs/each), the first group served as control (fed ration composed of 60% concentrate feed mixture (CFM) plus 40 % alfalfa hay) while the second and third groups were fed with 5g and 10g/kg probiotics diet (Biovet -YC + a concentrate feed mixture) respectively, for six months. Lambs were weighed monthly and growth performance indices (growth rate, GR, %, average daily gain ADG, gram/head/day and Total weight gain, TWG, kg) were calculated. The results demonstrated that lambs supplemented with 5g/kg probiotics diet (level 1) had better performance (P<0.05) in GR, ADG and TWG than those supplemented with 10g/kg probiotics diet (level 2) and control groups. In General, lambs supplemented with probiotics shows significant improvement (P<0.05) the values of Hb, PCV, RBC's, and WBC's compared with control group. On the other hand, level 2 of probiotics group had higher concentrations of PCV, RBC’s (P<0.05) and WBC’s (P<0.05) than level 1 of probiotics and control groups. The mean values of plasma TP, AL, GL and GLU concentrations had higher values (P<0.05) for lambs under probiotics supplementation than control group, while total plasma CHO and CRE levels in all groups remained relatively stable throughout the study. Hussein A F