Effects of Gender and Dietary Ionophores on Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics in Moghani Lambs

An experiment was carried to evaluate the effects of gender and two dietary ionophores on growth performance and slaughter characteristics in Moghani sheep. A total of 30 Moghani lambs (15 males and 15 females) were distributed randomly into 30 individual cages. Each gender group consisted of 5 animals and fed with a basal diet with no supplement, the same basal diet plus 25 mg/kg monensin (MON) or 25 mg/kg lasalocid (LAS). The lambs were weighed and slaughtered after a feeding period of 134 days and carcass parameters were determined. Average slaughter weight (SW) was significantly influenced by gender (48.9 kg for females vs. 51.4 kg for males) (P0.05). Lambs fed MON had the lowest feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) which significantly differed from those of the lambs fed the other two diets. Females had a significantly higher average internal fat compared with their male counterparts (P