Intake of Spineless Cladodes of Opuntia ficus-indica During Late Pregnancy Improves Progeny Performance in Underfed Sheep
| Autor: | Juan Manuel Vazquez Garcia, Jorge Urrutia Morales, Morteza Hosseini-Ghaffari, Graeme Martin, Cesar A. Meza-Herrera, Manuel de Jesús Flores Nájera, Alfonso J. Chay-Canul, Francisco Santiago Hernandez, Venancio Cuevas Reyes, Antonio Gonzalez-Bulnes, Cesar A. Rosales Nieto |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Opuntia spp
sheep 040301 veterinary sciences Opuntia ficus Birth weight postnatal performance Article 0403 veterinary science chemistry.chemical_compound Animal science lcsh:Zoology Cladodes medicine Weaning Ammonium lcsh:QL1-991 Pregnancy lcsh:Veterinary medicine General Veterinary biology 0402 animal and dairy science food and beverages birth weight 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences biology.organism_classification medicine.disease 040201 dairy & animal science Late pregnancy chemistry Urea lcsh:SF600-1100 Animal Science and Zoology cactus |
| Zdroj: | Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI Animals Volume 10 Issue 6 Animals, Vol 10, Iss 995, p 995 (2020) |
| ISSN: | 2076-2615 |
| Popis: | The present study tested whether feeding ewes during the last third of pregnancy with cladodes of Opuntia (untreated or protein-enriched), as an alternative to alfalfa hay, would improve milk yield as well as the pre- and post-natal growth of their lambs. Sixty mature Rambouillet ewes and their progeny were randomly allocated among three nutritional treatments: (i) Control, fed alfalfa (ii) Opuntia, fed untreated cladodes (iii) E-Opuntia, fed protein-enriched cladodes (pre-treated with urea and ammonium sulphate). Birth weight did not differ among treatments (p > 0.05) but Control ewes produced more milk than both groups of Opuntia-fed ewes (p < 0.05). However, milk yield was not related to the growth of the progeny (p > 0.05) because lambs from E-Opuntia-fed ewes grew faster (p < 0.01) and were heavier at weaning (p < 0.05) than lambs from the other two groups. We conclude that Opuntia (with or without protein enrichment) can be used as an alternative to alfalfa hay for feeding ewes during the last third of pregnancy and therefore reduce production costs under extensive conditions in arid and semiarid regions. Moreover, protein-enriched Opuntia appears to improve postnatal lamb growth. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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