Animals (Aug 2020)

Resilience of Lambs to Limited Water Availability without Compromising Their Production Performance

  • Yusuf A. Adeniji,
  • Musafau O. Sanni,
  • Khalid A. Abdoun,
  • Emad M. Samara,
  • Mohamed A. Al-Badwi,
  • Majdi A. Bahadi,
  • Ibrahim A. Alhidary,
  • Ahmed A. Al-Haidary

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10091491
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 9
p. 1491

Abstract

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Water scarcity is a common phenomenon in arid and semi-arid regions, which could have tremendous effects on livestock production. This study aimed to determine the level of water restriction that lambs fed on a pelleted diet can tolerate without compromising their production performance. A total of 24 male Najdi lambs were housed individually and randomly allocated into three equal groups, namely ad libitum water intake, 33% water-intake restriction, and 67% water-intake restriction. Dry-matter intake, feed conversion ratio, and average daily gain were decreased (p p p p p p < 0.05) efficiency of nitrogen utilization. It was strongly evident that lambs could tolerate water-intake restriction of up to 33% without compromising their production performance.

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