The effect of increasing extruded linseed level on nutrient digestibility, growth, carcass characteristics, and non-carcass components of lambs from two genotypes

AbstractThis research aimed to study the effect of extruded linseed level on digestibility, growth, carcass, and non-carcass components of two genotypes ’ lambs. For this, 36 lambs, with an average body weight (BW) of 21.3 ± 3.4 for Queue Fine de l’Ouest (QF) and 17.8 ± 2.9 kg for the cross QF × D’man (QF × D), were randomly divided into three groups of 12 lambs each (six per genotype) in a 12-week experiment. Sheep in eac h group received individually oat hay ad libitum and one of three concentrates containing 0% (control), 15% (L15), and 30% (L30) of extruded linseed on a dry matter basis. All concentrates were isocaloric and iso-nitrogenic. In the last 2 weeks, digestibility was measured, and then all lambs were s laughtered. The increasing level of extruded linseed did not affect hay and total dry matter (DM) intake as well as nutrient digestibility, except the neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility which was significantly (P <  0.05) reduced by the diet treatment (66.4, 57.8, and 53.0% for C, L15, and L30, respectively). In addition, the different linseed levels resulted in similar average daily gain, final BW, carcass traits, and non-carcass components except the rumen and liver weights which were significantly (P <  0.05) reduced by the increasing linseed level. However, the addition of extruded linseed improved (P <  0.05) the weight of the heart. The carcass tissular composition was not affected by the dietary tre...
Source: Tropical Animal Health and Production - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research