Impact of Siberian larch dihydroquercetin or dry distilled rose petals as feed supplements on 8 lamb's growth performance, carcass characteristics and blood count parameters.

Abstract

<title>Abstract</title> <p>The objective of this study was to determine the impact of dihydroquercetin from Siberian larch and dry distilled rose petals (DDRP) on growth performance, carcasses characteristics and blood parameters of lambs from the Bulgarian Dairy Synthetic population sheep. For the purpose of the study there were used 30 clinically healthy male lambs aged 65 days, levelled by live weight. They were housed in a totally indoor barn and were divided into one control and two experimental groups, each consisting of 10 animals that were fed for 50 days. The control group (C) was fed ground alfalfa + granulated compound feed. The experimental groups (D) and (R) were fed on the same diet supplemented either with 7.5 mg dihydroquercetin/kg/day or with 545 mg DDRP/kg/day respectively. The carcass yield of lambs having consumed dihydroquercetin or DDRP compared to lambs from control group C do not have significant differences (p &gt; 0.05). The carcass conformation of C or R groups lambs do not differ (70% - class P, 30% - class O). The 90% of lamb's carcasses from the experimental group D were classified in class P. The dihydroquercetin feeding increases the relative fat content (p ≤ 0.01) of lamb carcasses but adversely affects their conformation. No significant differences (p &gt; 0.05) were found between 1st h and 24th h post-mortem pH of control group C and experimental group D. Compared to them the pH values of the experimental group R were by 0.14-0.15 pH units lower (p ≤ 0.05). No significant differences (p &gt; 0.05) were found in the blood count of the three studied groups of lambs. Exceptions were made for haemoglobin (HGL) in the experimental group D which were with 6-7 g/l higher (p ≤ 0.05) than these in control group C and experimental group R and the blood glucose (GLU) in the experimental group R which is with 0.25-0.28 mmol/l lower than determined in control group C and experimental group D.</p>