Effect of using the bee pollen as feed additive for suckling Rahmani lambs on immunity response, diseases infection, mortality rate, growth performance and output of weaning weight

Document Type : Original Article

Author

animal production research institute, department of animal nutrition research

Abstract

Forty-five suckling lambs 24 males and 21 females at 7 days after birth with an average live body weight of 5.2 ± 0.06 kg were allocated into three similar groups (8 males and 7 females in each group) according to LBW and sex. All lambs naturally suckled their dams. The 1st group was un-supplemented and served as control (G1), whereas the 2nd and 3rd groups orally supplemented with 0.5 and 1.0 g bee pollen/lamb/day, respectively. The experiment continued for 84 days. Results showed that all types of plasma immunoglobulins were significantly (P<0.05) increased in tested groups (G2 and G3) compared with the control one (G1). The high bee pollen level (G3) showed significantly (P<0.05) the highest values compared to low level in G2. The percentages of induced diseases were decreased significantly (P<0.05) with increase the level of BP additive. Moreover, G3 received the high level of bee pollen revealed the lowest percentages of various diseases followed by G2, whereas control one G1 had the highest percentages (P<0.05). (G1) recorded significantly (P<0.05) the highest mortality rate 20% followed by G2 13.33%, while the G3 recorded the lowest rate 6.67%. Lambs were significantly (P<0.05) heavier in BP additive groups than that of control one, being the heaviest in G3. Also, TWG and ADG were significantly (P<0.05) higher in BP additive in G3 being 13.84 kg and 164.76 g, respectively. Improvements in feed intake, conversion and output of weaning weight increased significantly (P<0.05) with increasing bee pollen from 0.5 to 1.0 g/lamb/day.

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