Macromineral requirements of Dorper×thin-tailed Han crossbred female lambs

• Published in: Journal of Integrative Agriculture Vol. 14; no. 8; pp. 1617 - 1626
• Main Authors: JI, Shou-kun, XU, Gui-shan, DIAO, Qi-yu, DENG, Kai-dong, JIANG, Cheng-gang, TU, Yan, ZHANG, Nai-feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Science Press 01.08.2015; Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, P.R.China%Col ege of Animal Science, Tarim University, Alar 843300, P.R.China%Col ege of Animal Science, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing 210038, P.R.China; Elsevier
• Subjects: comparative slaughter trials; diet; fed; growth requirements; lamb; macrominerals; macrominerals comparative slaughter trials maintenance requirements growth requirements sheep; maintenance requirements; net; sheep; was; 常量元素; 杂交羔羊; comparative slaughter trials; maintenance requirements; growth requirements; macrominerals; sheep
• ISSN: 2095-3119; 2352-3425
• DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(14)60901-1

A comparative slaughter trial was conducted to determine the net mineral requirements for maintenance and growth of Dorper crossbred female lambs raised from 20 to 35 kg of body weight（BW）.Thirty-five Dorper×thin-tailed Han crossbred female lambs of（20.3±1.14） kg BW were used： 7 lambs were randomly chosen and slaughtered at the beginning of the experiment as the baseline group for measuring the initial body composition; another 7 lambs were randomly chosen and offered a pelleted mixed diet ad libitum and slaughtered at（27.0±0.73） kg BW; the remaining 21 lambs were randomly divided into 3 groups of 7 animals each and subjected to the same diet either ad l ibitum or at 70 or 40% of ad libitum intake.The 21 lambs were fed in 7 slaughter groups, with each group consisting of one lamb from each treatment（ad libitum, 70 or 40% of ad libitum intake）.The 3 groups were slaughtered when the sheep fed ad libitum attained（33.8±0.52） kg of BW.The body composition of five minerals（Ca, P, Na, K, and Mg） was determined.The net mineral requirements for maintenance were 35.01, 25.18, 9.30, 31.35, and 2.03 mg kg–1 empty BW（EBW） for Ca, P, Na, K, and Mg, respectively, and the net growth requirement per kg of EBW gain ranged from 9.73 to 8.87 g of Ca, 5.83 to 5.27 g of P, 1.73 to 1.63 g of Na, 3.73 to 4.08 g of K, and 0.26 to 0.25 g of Mg for Dorper crossbred lambs in China, respectively.The estimates of mineral requirements with Dorper crossbred lambs in the current study were not consistent with the recommendations from previous studies.