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Research
2.
Effect of
different dietary
energy levels on the performance and nutrient digestibility of
lambs-
Abdel-Baset
N. Sayed
Veterinary
World 2(11):418-420
Abstract
Sixty male lambs were used in this experiment to
study the effect of energy level of diets on the
performance, nutrient digestibility and carcass
traits for 90 days. The animals were allotted into 3
groups, 4 animals per each. The first group was fed
a medium energy diet (3.20 Mcal/kg diet), while the
second group fed on diet contained high energy level
(3.50 Mcal/kg diet) and the third group fed on low
energy diet (2.90 Mcal/kg diet). All diets contained
14.70% crude protein in dry matter. The average
daily feed intake was affected significantly (P <
0.05) by the level of energy and lambs group fed on
low energy ration had significantly (P < 0.05)
increased feed intake compared with other treatment
groups. Lambs that received the highest energy level
diet had a higher significant (P < 0.05) average
daily gain than that received the medium and low
energy diets. Feed conversion was deteriorated in
lambs group fed on low energy diet. The digestion
coefficient of nutrients and total digestible
nutrient were increased significantly (P < 0.05)
with high-energy diet. Dressing percentage and body
fat was increased with feeding high dietary energy.
It could be concluded that the high dietary energy
produced the best performance, nutrient
digestibility and carcass traits of lambs in
addition to economical benefit.
Keywords: Energy, Performance, Digestibility,
Carcass, Lambs