Abstract :

T

his work was carried out to investigate the effects of Chamomile flower supplementation as a feed additive on reproductive performance and physiological responses of ewes during heat stress conditions. Forty-five healthy fertile Farafra ewes aged 2-4 years with an average body weight of 42.1 ± 0.92 kg were equally divided into three groups (15 ewes each), control group: received basal diet with no additives, T1: received basal diet + 0.5 gm chamomile flower /10 kg L.B.W/ day and T2: received basal diet + 1.0 gm chamomile flower /10 kg L.B.W/ day. The experiment lasted through a season of mating till parturition " during the summer season". Body weight of ewes was improved at the end of pregnancy and after lambing in both supplemented groups (T1 & T2) compared to the control group. Concerning reproductive performance, the number of ewes exhibited estrus inChamomile supplemented groups (T1, T2) was higher than those in the control group. Also, supplemented ewes exhibited estrus earlier than control ones, especially in T2. Conception rate was improved by Chamomile supplementation, it was 93.3% in T2 followed by 80.0% in T1 and the lowest one was in the control group (73.3%). Also, the numbers of total and alive lambs born were higher in supplemented groups compared to control. In addition, Chamomile supplementation increased birth weight of lambs, this increase was significant (P<0.05)between T2 versus control (4.02 vs. 3.32 kg) however, it was not significant between T1 and control. Rectal and skin temperatures values were lower in both Chamomile supplemented groups compared to control. At the same time, respiration rate was decreased significantly in treated groups (32.5 in T1 and 32.8 in T2) than the control group (40.6). However, opposite trend of results was obtained in gas volume/minute and tidal volume. Metabolic rate (MR) and heat production (HP) were significantly (P<0.05) higher in T2 compared to both T1 and control groups. Serum total protein, albumin, and globulin tended to insignificantly increase with chamomile supplementation. In addition, serum urea, creatinine, AST and ALT concentrations did not significantly differ among groups and all values of these investigated blood metabolites were within the normal range of sheep. In conclusion, supplementation of chamomile flowers as a herbal feed additive had a beneficial effect on reproductive performance of ewes and the better improvement was observed with the high level of supplementation (1.0 gm chamomile flower /10 kg L.B.W/ day). Moreover, the investigated physiological responses during heat stress were improved by the supplementation with no adverse side effects on blood metabolites.

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