Growth performance, apparent digestibility, and N balance in Mongolian lambs and hoggs fed diets supplemented with a Chinese traditional herbal medicine complex.

Abstract

We evaluated the effects of dietary supplementation with Chinese traditional herbal medicine (CTHM) on the growth performance, apparent digestibility, and nitrogen balance in Mongolian lambs and hoggs. The CTHM used as a dietary supplement consisted of 30% pine needles, 20% mugwort, 40% garlic, and 10% Astragalus mongholicus on a dry matter (DM) basis. The basal diet was prepared from corn stover, corn grain, wheat bran, rapeseed meal, shell meal, dicalcium phosphate, salt, vitamin premix, and mineral premix. In total, 16 Mongolian lambs (20.75kg initial body weight [BW]) and 16 hoggs (33.81kg initial BW) were allocated randomly to one of two treatments, the basal diet without and with CTHM, with the group receiving CTHM fed 98.5% basal diet+1.5% CTHM complex on a DM basis. Lamb and hogg growth trials showed that CTHM supplementation improved the final live weight, gain, and feed conversion ratio (p<0.01). A digestibility trial showed that the diet with CTHM improved the digestibility of DM, organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), and neutral detergent fiber in lambs and hoggs. Finally, CTHM supplementation decreased (p<0.0001) fecal and urinary nitrogen and increased (p=0.0004) nitrogen (N) retention. Overall, the addition of CTHM to the diets of lambs and hoggs has beneficial effects on growth.