Effect of adding <i>Spirulina platensis</i> algae to small ruminant rations on productive, reproductive traits and some blood components

This experiment conducted using 20 Rahmani ewes at the last third of pregnancy in two equal groups. One group served as control, while the other group received Spirulina platensis (SP) at the rate of 0.5 gm 10 kg^-1 live body weight. The objective was to find out the effect of adding Spirulina platensis algae to small ruminant rations on reproductive and productive traits and blood components of sheep. The experiments lasted for 120 days for both dams and their lambs after weaning. The findings proved that adding SP in ewes' diets had no effect on the average of live body weight change. Average milk yield was significantly (p <0.01) higher in the treatment group than the control. Lamb's birth weight and daily body gain of the treated group were significantly (p <0.01) higher than the control. Blood and serum picture profile of ewes were significantly higher when fed SP additive than the control. It could be concluded that the addition of SP to the ration of sheep positively preserved their health, productive and reproductive status as well as their lambs' growth rate. Also the additive improved the economic efficiency of treated animals by about 53.13%.

Keywords:
blood; milk; productive traits; sheep; Spirulina

Authorship

Mohamed Mohamed El-Deeb ^** Author for correspondence. E-mail: deep121eg@yahoo.com

Animal Nutrition Research Department, Animal and Poultry Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.Agricultural Research CenterEgyptDokki, Giza, EgyptAnimal Nutrition Research Department, Animal and Poultry Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5893-6763

Megahed Abdel-Gawad

Sheep and Goats Research Department, Animal and Poultry Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt. Agricultural Research CenterEgyptDokki, Giza, Egypt Sheep and Goats Research Department, Animal and Poultry Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Abdel-Hafez

Fatma Elsayed Saba

Eid Mohamed Mohamed Ibrahim

* Author for correspondence. E-mail: deep121eg@yahoo.com

SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Figures | Tables

Figures (3)
Tables (5)

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Figure 1
Live body weight changes of Rahmani ewes during the two experimental periods (Late pregnancy and suckling).

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Figure 2
Average daily milk yield of Rani ewes during the lactation period.

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Figure 3
Live body weight of growing Rahmani lambs after weaning till 180 days of age with and without SP supplementation in their diets.

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Table 1
Chemical composition of feedstuffs, calculated composition and feeding values of the experimental rations.

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Table 2
Average feed intake (gm dry matter, DM head^-1 day^-1) of Rahmani ewes during late pregnancy and suckling periods.

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Table 3
Average live body weight (LBW; kg) of Rahmani ewes during the two experimental periods (Late pregnancy and suckling).

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Table 4
Average litter weight (LW; kg) of Rahmani ewes during the suckling period.

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Table 5
Blood profile of Rahmani ewes after 120 days of the algal extract addition to their diets.

Figure 1 Live body weight changes of Rahmani ewes during the two experimental periods (Late pregnancy and suckling).

Figure 2 Average daily milk yield of Rani ewes during the lactation period.

Figure 3 Live body weight of growing Rahmani lambs after weaning till 180 days of age with and without SP supplementation in their diets.

Table 1 Chemical composition of feedstuffs, calculated composition and feeding values of the experimental rations.

	Chemical composition (on DM basis, %)							TDN (%)	DE (Mcal kg^-1 DM)	ME (Mcal kg^-1 DM)
Ingredients	DM	OM	CP	EE	CF	NFE	Ash	TDN (%)	DE (Mcal kg^-1 DM)	ME (Mcal kg^-1 DM)
CFM	91.29	91.41	14.47	3.29	14.41	58.70	8.52	60.52	2.67	2.25
BH	89.13	86.71	12.19	1.74	35.51	38.69	14.81	59.50	2.62	2.20
Spirulina OM constituents			65.00	18.00	5.00	9.00	7.50	--	--	3.15
Vitamins, minerals and pigments (in 10 gm of Spirulina)
β-carotene 32000	B₁ (mg) 0.31	B₂ (mg) 0.35	B₃ (mg) 1.46	B₅ (μg) 10.00	B₆ (μg) 80.00		B₉ (μg) 1.00		B₁₂ (μg) 32.00
Vit. A (μg) 29.0	Choline (mg) 66.0	Vit. C (mg) 10.1	Vit. E (mg) 5.0	Vit. K (μg) 25.5	Ca (mg) 100.0		P (mg) 90.0		K (mg) 120.0
Fe (mg) 15.0	Mn (mg) 0.16	Zn (mg) 0.3	Se (mg) 0.003	Cu (mg) 120.0	Na (mg) 60.0		Phycothian (mg) 1500		Chlorophyll (mg) 115

DM= dry matter; OM= organic matter; CP=crude protein; EE=ether extract; NFE=nitrogen free extract; TDN=total digestible nutrients; DE=digestible energy; CFM=concentrate feed mixture and BH=Egyptian clover hay.

Table 2 Average feed intake (gm dry matter, DM head^-1 day^-1) of Rahmani ewes during late pregnancy and suckling periods.

Item	Experimental Groups
Item	Control	SP
The 1^st experimental period before lambing (90 days of pregnancy):
Average daily DM intake (gm) from
CFM	801	800
BH	792	808
Average total DM intake (gm head^-1 day^-1)	1593	1617
Average DM intake as % of body weight	2.73	2.73
Average DM intake as % of metabolic weight (g kg^-0.75)	75.57	75.77
Roughage : Concentrate ratio	50 : 50	50 : 50
The 2^nd experimental period after lambing (Suckling period)
Average daily DM intake (gm) from:CFM	990	1001
BH	960	992
Average total DM intake (gm head^-1 day^-1)	1950	1993
Average DM intake as % of body weight	3.94	4.01
Average DM intake as % of metabolic weight (g kg^-0.75)	104.50	106.50
Roughage : Concentrate ratio	49 : 51	50 : 50

Table 3 Average live body weight (LBW; kg) of Rahmani ewes during the two experimental periods (Late pregnancy and suckling).

Item	Experimental Groups		SEM	Probability of significance
Item	Control	SP	SEM	Probability of significance
No. of ewes	10	10	-	-
The 1^st experimental period before lambing (90 days of pregnancy)
Initial weight	57.4	57.5	1.53	NS
LBW at 120 days of pregnancy	57.8	58.9	1.68	NS
LBW at 135 days of pregnancy	59.1	60.2	1.66	NS
LBW at 150 days of pregnancy	60.0	62.4	1.72	NS
The 2^nd experimental period after lambing (Suckling period)
LBW at lambing	52.4	52.6	1.45	NS
LBW at 15 days post-lambing	50.4	50.7	1.33	NS
LBW at 30 days post-lambing	48.3	49.6	1.24	NS
LBW at 45 days post-lambing	47.4	48.7	1.26	NS
LBW at 60 days post-lambing (Weaning)	46.5	48.2	1.25	NS

NS: Not significant. SEM: Standard Error of mean.

Table 4 Average litter weight (LW; kg) of Rahmani ewes during the suckling period.

Item	Experimental Groups		SEM	Probability of significance
Item	Control	SP	SEM	Probability of significance
No. of ewes	10	10	-	-
No. of stillbirth lambs	0	0	-	-
No. of alive lambs at 0 day	10	13	-	-
No. of alive lambs at 60 days (at weaning)	10	13	-	-
Average birth weight, kg	2.66^b	3.14^a	0.14	0.0210
AVERAGE LW AT 15 DAYS OF AGE, kg	4.79^b	6.19^a	0.29	0.0055
Average LW at 30 days of age, kg	6.80^b	8.83^a	0.33	0.0006
Average LW at 45 days of age, kg	9.00^b	11.50^a	0.39	0.0003
Average LW at 60 days of age, kg (weaning)	11.39^b	13.85^a	0.37	0.0001
Average daily body gain, gm	146.2^b	178.6^a	4.18	0.0000
Average Kilogram lambs born / ewe	2.65^b	4.08^a	0.29	0.0031
Average Kilogram weaned / ewe	11.40^b	18.20^a	1.32	0.0019
Mortality, %	0	0	-	-
Relative Economic efficiency, %	1.28	1.96	-	-

a, b: Means within the same raw with different superscripts are significantly different. SEM: Standard Error of mean.

Table 5 Blood profile of Rahmani ewes after 120 days of the algal extract addition to their diets.

Item	Experimental Groups		SEM	Probability of significance
Item	Control	SP	SEM	Probability of significance
Hemoglobin (gm dL^-1)	11.50^b	13.75^a	0.19	0.0001
Hematocrit (%)	32.27^b	35.00^a	0.18	0.0237
Red blood cells × 10⁶ µL^-1 (RBCs)	12.7^b	14.9^a	0.08	0.0221
Mean Cell Hemoglobin Concentration (MCHC, %)	35.7^b	39.3^a	0.10	0.0014
Glucose (mg dL^-1)	63.60^b	72.37^a	0.37	0.0001
Total protein (gm dL^-1)	6.67^b	7.83^a	0.06	0.0002
Albumin (gm dL^-1)	2.98	3.19	0/04	0.0224
Globulin (g dL^-1)	3.69^b	4.64^a	0.02	0.0000
Urea-N (mg dL^-1)	15.68^b	17.49^a	0.21	0.0034
AST (u L^-1)	47.69	47.26	0.23	0.2655
ALT(u L^-1)	17.05	16.53	0.15	0.0699
Cholesterol (mg dL^-1)	103.83^b	106.20^a	0.37	0.0105
Total lipids (mg dL^-1)	308.13^b	313.30^a	0.30	0.0003

a, b: Means within the same raw with different superscripts are significantly different. SEM: Standard Error of mean.

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Métricas

Effect of adding <i>Spirulina platensis</i> algae to small ruminant rations on productive, reproductive traits and some blood components

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Mensagem

[1] * Author for correspondence. E-mail: deep121eg@yahoo.com