Astragalus membranaceus root supplementation improves average daily gain, rumen fermentation, serum immunity and antioxidant indices of Tibetan sheep
X.J. Wang,
L.M. Ding,
H.Y. Wei,
C.X. Jiang,
Q. Yan,
C.S. Hu,
G.X. Jia,
Y.Q. Zhou,
Z. Henkin,
A.A. Degen
Affiliations
X.J. Wang
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem, Engineering Research Center of Arid Agriculture and Ecological Remediation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
L.M. Ding
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem, Engineering Research Center of Arid Agriculture and Ecological Remediation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China; Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Adaptive Management on Alpine Grassland, Qinghai University, Xining, Qinghai 810016, China; Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem, Engineering Research Center of Arid Agriculture and Ecological Remediation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China.
H.Y. Wei
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem, Engineering Research Center of Arid Agriculture and Ecological Remediation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
C.X. Jiang
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem, Engineering Research Center of Arid Agriculture and Ecological Remediation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
Q. Yan
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem, Engineering Research Center of Arid Agriculture and Ecological Remediation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
C.S. Hu
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem, Engineering Research Center of Arid Agriculture and Ecological Remediation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
G.X. Jia
Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Science, Xining 810001, China
Y.Q. Zhou
Haibei Comprehensive Experimental Station of National Beef Cattle & Yak Industrial Technology System, Haibei 810299, China
Z. Henkin
Beef Cattle Section, Department of Natural Resources, Agricultural Research Organization, Newe-Ya'ar Research Center, POB 1021, Ramat Yishay, 30095, Israel
A.A. Degen
Desert Animal Adaptations and Husbandry, Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
The use of antibiotics as supplements in animal feed is restricted due to possible health hazards associated with them. Consequently, there is increasing interest in exploiting natural products to improve health and production of livestock with no detrimental side effects. In this study, we examined the effect of Astragalus membranaceus root (AMT) supplementation on DM intake, growth performance, rumen fermentation and immunity of Tibetan sheep. Twenty-four male Tibetan sheep (31 ± 1.4 kg; 9 months old) were assigned randomly to one of four dietary treatments with different levels of AMT: 0, 20, 50 and 80 g/kg DM (A0, A2, A5 and A8, respectively) in addition to their basal diets. A0 acted as a control group, and measurements were recorded over a 56-d feeding period. Sheep fed with AMT had a higher average daily gain and a lower feed:gain ratio than controls (P < 0.001). Rumen concentrations of NH3-N (P < 0.001), total volatile fatty acids (P = 0.028), acetate (P = 0.017) and propionate (P = 0.031) in A5 and A8 were higher than those in A0. The addition of AMT in the feed significantly increased serum antioxidant and immunity factors of the sheep and increased the concentrations of serum interleukin, immunoglobulin and tumour necrosis factor-α (P = 0.010). We concluded that AMT can be used as a feed additive to improve growth performance and rumen fermentation and enhance the immunity of Tibetan sheep. Some responses exhibited a dose-dependent response, whereas other did not exhibit a pattern, with an increase in AMT. The addition of 50 and 80 g/kg AMT of total DM intake showed the most promising results.
