Effects Of Alfalfa Saponin On The Production Performance, Serum Biochemical Indexes, And Immune Function In Small Tailed Han Sheep

Alfalfa saponin is a bioactive substance extracted from alfalfa, and it has been known to possess properties useful to human and animals, including cholesterol lowering activity, antioxidant activity, antiviral activity, immunostimulant activity,hypo-glyceamic, and antidiabetic activity. There are few reports about the applications of alfalfa saponin in small tailed han sheep. Therefore, the effects of alfalfa saponin on the growth performance, serum biochemical indexes, and immune function in small tailed han sheep were researched in the present study.Twenty small tailed han sheep were equally and randomly divided into four groups, which were fed with diets containing 0, 5, 10, and 20 g alfalfa saponin/kg for40 consecutive days, respectively. During the treatments, the bodyweight change of each sheep was recorded to compare the differences of growth performances among different groups. In addition, before, after and during the treatments, serum was collected from each group to compare the differences of serum biochemical indexes and immune functions among different groups. And after the treatments, all sheep were killed, and the spleen, heart, liver, lung, and kidney were collected to compare the organ indexes among different groups, while the longissimus dorsi muscle was also collected from each group to compare the meat quality. All results from each group were subjected to one-way analysis of variance, and the LSD or Duncan method were further used to perform multiple comparisons.Results:(1) The average daily gain in Group 2 was significant higher(P ? 0.05)than those in Group 3 and control, but did not have significant difference with Group 1(P ? 0.05). While the drip loss, cooking loss, and shear force in Group 2 were all significantly decreased(P ? 0.05). All these results indicated the effects of alfalfa saponin on the growth performance and meat quality in small tailed han sheep, and the supplementation level of 10 g/kg was the best one.(2) Alfalfa saponin had effects on the serum concentrations of glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, total protein, albumin,urea nitrogen, creatinine, glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol, low density lipoprotein,creatine jubase and alkaline phosphatase in small tailed han sheep. And after different feeding periods, this effect might change: after a shorter feeding period(14 days), the concentrations of cholesterol and low density lipoprotein in Group 1, 2 and 3 were all lower than those in control group, however, when went on feeding the rations of alfalfasaponin, this effect was not clear or even gone. In addition, the alfalfa saponin had the hepatoprotective effect when it was fed at the concentration of 10 g/kg, and the glutamic-pyruvic transaminase concentrations in the serum were significantly decreased.(3) Supplying alfalfa saponin increased the concentrations of Ig A, Ig G, Ig E,Ig M, IL-1, IFN-α, and IFN-β in serum. And this effect was distinctly observed in Group 2 and 3. In addition, the supplementations of alfalfa saponin at different levels could dramatically elevate the spleen index.(4) When alfalfa saponin was fed at 10g/kg for 14 consecutive days, it could dramatically reduce the levels of cholesterol and low density lipoprotein in serum, and significantly increase the concentrations of immune factors.Conclusion: Alfalfa saponin had effects on growth performance, meat quality,serum biochemical indexes, and immune function in small tailed han sheep. Based on our results, the alfalfa saponin concentration of 10 g/kg(for 14 consecutive days)could be suggested as optimum ratio for good health conditions of small tailed han sheep.