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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (6): 122-138.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2024289

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Effects of supplemental feeding on growth rate, and serum biochemical and metabolomic parameters of grazing Tan sheep

Qian XU1,2,3(), Shuai GUO2,4, Liang-liang ZHANG5, Zhan-jun WANG6, Guo-sheng XIN1,2,3()   

  1. 1.School of Life Sciences,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China
    2.Ningxia Feed Engineering Technology Research Center,Yinchuan 750021,China
    3.Key Lab of Ministry of Education for Protection and Utilization of Special Biological Resources in Western China,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China
    4.School of Animal Science and Technology,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China
    5.Ningxia Haobiao Testing Service Research Institute,Yinchuan 750021,China
    6.Institute of Forestry and Grassland Ecology,Ningxia Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences,Yinchuan 750021,China
  • Received:2024-07-23 Revised:2024-09-09 Online:2025-06-20 Published:2025-04-03
  • Contact: Guo-sheng XIN

Abstract:

The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of supplemental feeding on growth rate, blood biochemistry, and antioxidant and blood metabolomic parameters of grazing Tan sheep. In the experiment, twenty-four 3-month-old castrated male Tan sheep, with similar body weight (23.38±0.70 kg), were randomly divided into four groups: a ‘no concentrate’ group (NC, control) which were grazed only, and low energy (LE), medium energy (ME), and high energy (HE) groups which were the experimental groups and received supplemental concentrate feed before grazing. The digestible energy content of supplemented concentrate was 15.91, 17.63 and 18.17 MJ·kg-1 for LE, ME and HE, respectively. There was a pre-trial adjustment period lasting 12 days and the experimental period lasted for 90 days. The results show: 1) Compared with NC and LE, the final weight and daily weight gain of the HE and ME groups was significantly increased (P<0.05). 2) The economic return of ME was higher than the economic returns from the other groups. 3) Fasting blood glucose, and levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, creatinine, aspartate aminotransferase and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations in the blood of the sheep all tended to increase with increase in supplemental concentrate energy level, with triglyceride content in HE being notably higher than in the other groups (P<0.05). 4) The energy level markedly affected the animals’ antioxidant capacity; the serum malondialdehyde content in HE was significantly higher than in NC and LE (P<0.05). In addition, the total antioxidant capacity in ME was notably higher than the NC (P<0.05). Moreover, glutathione peroxidase activity in NC was notably higher than in LE and ME (P<0.05). 5) The plasma metabolomics analysis identified a total of 17 metabolites with significant differences. The enriched metabolic pathways were mainly purine metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, primary bile acid biosynthesis, arachidonic acid metabolism, cholesterol metabolism, and tyrosine metabolism. In summary, increasing energy level effectively improved the growth rate of grazing Tan sheep. Blood biochemistry and metabolomic data indicate this improvement may be through the regulation of purine metabolism, arachidonic acid metabolism and other pathways and their intermediate metabolites to enhance body antioxidant and immune functions. Under the conditions of this experiment, the supplemental concentrate level of 0.45 kg·animal-1·d-1 (ME) showed the best effect.

Key words: energy, artificial grassland, Ningxia Tan sheep, grazing, antioxidant, plasma metabolome