Effect Of Chinese Herbal Medicine Feed Additives On Performance, Faeces, Urine And Methane Emissions Of Shanbei White Cashmere Goats

The aim of this study was to study the effect of Chinese herbal medicine feed additiveson performance,nutrient digeatibility, faeces,urine and methane emissions of Shanbei whitecashmere goats,to provide theoretical basis for the application of Chinese herbal medicineadditives in sheep production. Ninety Shanbei white cashmere goats were randomly dividedinto10groups, three replicates each group, three goats each replicate. The first group wascontrol group to feed the basal diet, other nine treatments were groups of Chinese herbal feedadditives to feed different experimental diets. Double-factors completely randomizedexperimental design was used for the experimental diets of different prescriptions(prescriptionⅠ, prescription Ⅱ, prescription Ⅲ) and levels (0.40percent,0.80percent,1.20percent) tostart a40d feeding trials,then a7d digestive metabolism test was conducted on20th-day andthe measurement test of methane emissions was conducted with sulfur-hexafluoride tracertechnique (preliminary trial period of7d included). Each replicate was selected one goat tocollect the jugular venous blood on the morning of first day after feeding trials.The resultsshowed that:(1) Ten treatment groups had significant differences for dry matter intake,performance,nutrient apparent digeatibility and economic benefits(P<0.05). Nine experimental groups hadimproved all indicators compared with the control group with varying degrees,and allindicators of0.80percent level of prescription Ⅱ were the highest. Obvious effects of doseand prescription were found about the rise of dry matter intake,performance and nutrientapparent digeatibility using Chinese herbal medicine feed additives,and all indicators ofprescription Ⅱ treatment group were higher than prescription Ⅲ treatment group(P>0.05),but had significant differences compared with prescription Ⅰ treatment group.Allindicators showed a decreasing trend after the first rise with the increase of dose,and0.80percent group was the best because all its indicators were the highest.(2) Ten treatment groups had significant differences for faeces,urine and methaneemissions per weight gain(P<0.05).Nine experimental groups had decreased all indicatorscompared with the control group with varying degrees,and indicators of0.80percent level ofprescription Ⅱ were the lowest. Effects of dose and prescription were found about thedeciline of faeces,urine and methane emissions per weight gain using Chinese herbal medicine feed additives(P<0.05). All indicators of prescription Ⅱ treatment group werelower than prescription Ⅲ treatment group(P>0.05),but All indicators of prescription Ⅱtreatment group and prescription Ⅲ treatment group were lower than prescription Ⅰtreatment group(P<0.05).(3) Ten treatment groups had no significant differences for blood biochemicalindicators(P>0.05). The total protein of nine experimental groups had an increasing tendencycompared with the control group.The urea nitrogen, blood glucose and triglycerides had andecreasing tendency compared with the control group. Chinese herbal medicine feed additiveshad significant effect of dose on urea nitrogen,but they have no significant effects of dose andprescription for other indicators.