Productive and Immunological Performance of Small Ruminants Offered Some Medicinal Plants as Feed Additives

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the effect of some medicinal herbs on ewes and their lambs performance represented in blood parameters, rumen liquor parameters, growth performance, and digestibility. In a factorial experiment with repeated measurements, 11 ewes in the second parturition and eight lambs with three months of age with an average bwt 19.03kg were divided into six groups. The experimental diets were: T1 fed Control, T2 fed T1 plus garlic powder (1gm/kg DM), T3 fed T1 with garlic powder (1.4gm/kg DM), T4 fed T1 plus fennel seed powder 1.2gm/kg DM, T5 fed T1 plus dill (0.8gm/Kg DM) and T6 fed T1 in addition to marjoram leaves powder (1gm/kg DM). We weighed the experimental animals fortnightly. We took blood and rumen liquor monthly for the six months of the experimental period. The use of medicinal herbs as feed additive by lambs showed a significant (P≤0.05) increase in DMI and average daily gain, especially with the use of fennel, leading to an increase in average daily gain by 161.11gm/day versus 121.11gm/day for the control group. Ewes fed experimental rations didn’t affect rumen pH, but the use of fennel, dill, and marjoram increased significantly (P≤0.05) TVFA′s produced from rumen fermentation. All treatments improved blood parameters, especially total protein and globulin, and increased total weight gain (P≤0.05) during the experimental period against the control group.