Replacing Soybean Meal with Azolla Plant as a Source of Protein on Performance of Iraqi Awassi Lambs

Abstract

This study was executed in the animal field of the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences at the University of Baghdad from November 15, 2022, to January 1, 2023. It was preceded by a 14-day trial period using 20 Awassi male lambs, whose ages ranged from 3.5 to 4 months. Moreover, starting with 18 to 19 kg. They were divided into four treatments at random: T1, which contained 6% soybeans and no azolla plant; T2, which contained 4% soybeans and 4% dry azolla plant; T3, which contained 2% soybeans and 8% dry azolla plant; and T4, which contained 12% dry azolla plant The results showed that there was a significant difference (p>0.05) in the daily and total weight gain as well as the digestion coefficient for some of the digested nutrients. Treatment T4 performed better than the other treatments in terms of increasing daily and total weight, while treatments T1 and T3 did not differ from each other The table of total nutrients digested and the field digestion coefficient did not change between the treatments T1 and 3T, which were better than treatment T2. There was no difference between treatment T1 and T3, which was superior to treatment T2, and there was a significant rise (P 0.05) for crude fiber and ether extract in treatment T4. The study found that adding 12% more Azolla plant to soybean meal resulted in the best weight growth and the highest digestibility of crude fiber and ether extract.