Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of Spirulina platensis powder (SPP) supplementation on growth performance, antioxidative status and blood metabolites in fattening lambs. Ten healthy lambs (46.5 ± 1.06 kg BW) were randomly assigned to one of two treatments (5 lambs per treatment) and received either no supplementation or supplemented with SPP at a rate of 1 g/10 kg BW/day. The feeding experiment was conducted for 35 days with body weight recorded and blood samples collected on days 0, 17 and 35 of the experiment. The paired Student’s t-test for means was used for statistical analysis. The results showed that SPP supplementation improved final live body weight, daily live weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio, compared to the control group (P<0.05). Also, haemoglobin, total white blood cell count, serum globulin, vitamin A and reduced glutathione were higher (P<0.05), while the aspartate amino transferase, alanine amino transferase, cholesterol, glucose and serum malondialdehyde levels were lower (P<0.05) in SPP supplemented group compared with the control. In conclusion, the findings of the present study clearly demonstrate that the SPP could be incorporated in fattening lambs diets as an antioxidant, immune-stimulant and growth promoter feed additive.

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