Vet World Vol.17 May-2024 Article - 24
Research Article
Veterinary World, 17(5): 1149-1156
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.1149-1156
Effects of feeding pomegranate seed pulp and coconut meal by-products on milk yield, milk quality, and metabolic responses of Awassi ewes and pre-weaning growth
2. Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Beeville, Texas, 78102, USA.
Background and Aim: Feeding by-products, such as pomegranate seed pulp (PSP) and coconut meal (COC), to livestock may enhance production efficiency and increase profits. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of PSP and COC on milk production, body weight change, metabolic response (Exp. 1), digestibility, and N balance (Exp. 2).
Materials and Methods: Twenty-four ewes nursing single lambs were randomly assigned to one of three diets: Control (CON) (n = 8), 7.5% PSP (n = 8), and 7.5% COC (n = 8) of dry matter (DM). Every sheep was born 3–4 days before the start of the experiment. The 1st week of the experiment was devoted to diet adaptation, while the data were collected during the following 8 weeks (Exp. 1). Nine lambs were randomly assigned to one of the three diets for intensive data collection to evaluate the diet digestibility and animal nitrogen (N) balance (Exp. 2). The data were analyzed using the MIXED SAS procedures.
Results: The PSP group consumed more DM, followed by the COC and CON groups. For lambs, the final BW, total gain, and average daily gain in the PSP group were greater (p < 0.05) than those in the COC and CON groups. The CON group had lower milk output, total solids, protein, fat, and lactose levels than the PSP and COC groups (p < 0.05). The cost of milk production was lower (p < 0.05) in the PSP and COC diet groups than in the CON group. Blood serum parameters were similar among the dietary groups, except for total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein, which were higher in the COC group than in the CON group. No differences were observed in nutrient digestibility and N balance.
Conclusion: Feeding PSP and COC to nursing ewes appears beneficial because it increases milk production and pre-weaning lamb growth and reduces milk production cost.
Keywords: Awassi ewes, coconut meal, milk yield and quality, pomegranate seed pulp.
How to cite this article: Obeidat BS, Qadorah MH, and Thomas MG (2024) Effects of feeding pomegranate seed pulp and coconut meal by-products on milk yield, milk quality, and metabolic responses of Awassi ewes and pre-weaning growth, Veterinary World, 17(5): 1149–1156.
Received: 2024-02-15 Accepted: 2024-04-29 Published online: 2024-05-17
Corresponding author: E-mail:
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1149-1156
Copyright: Obeidat, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
