Effects of mulberry leaf silage on antioxidant and immunomodulatory activity and rumen bacterial community of lambs

Table 1 Effect of alfalfa silage (AS) and mulberry leaf silage (MS) based diets on growth performance, organ index, and meat quality characteristics in lambs

Items	Treatments		SEM	P-value
Items	AS	MS	SEM	P-value
Growth performance
DMI, g/d	0.62	0.61	0.007	0.67
0d BW,	15.2	15.3	0.44	0.90
80d BW, kg	21.2	22.0	0.36	0.17
ADG, g/d	97.7	96.0	7.85	0.87
DMI/ADG, g/g	6.34	6.39	0.378	0.92
Organ index
Carcass weight, kg	10.5	10.7	0.23	0.57
Dressing percentage, %	49.5	48.5	0.44	0.19
Head weight, kg	1.55	1.37	0.042	0.03
Hooves weight, kg	0.48	0.48	0.018	1.00
Pelage weight, kg	1.83	1.92	0.072	0.45
Heart, kg	89.8	84.4	3.99	0.38
Liver, kg	318.6	338.5	21.08	0.53
Spleen, kg	32.5	29.2	0.72	0.02
Lung, kg	199.4	197.8	6.30	0.87
Kidney, kg	30.1	34.5	1.22	0.05
Tail lipid, kg	720.0	835.6	54.09	0.19
Kidney lipid, kg	38.4	44.5	4.85	0.41
Meat quality
GR, mm	12.9	13.4	0.56	0.55
pH 45 min	6.83	6.70	0.075	0.27
a* 45 min	6.27	6.81	0.394	0.38
b* 45 min	6.68	6.84	0.748	0.89
c* 45 min	9.48	9.80	0.743	0.77
H* 45 min	46.4	44.3	2.27	0.53
L* 45 min	34.1	32.2	0.67	0.10
pH 24 h	5.66	5.55	0.074	0.32
a* 24 h	8.60	9.18	0.520	0.46
b* 24 h	10.7	11.1	0.68	0.71
c* 24 h	13.8	14.4	0.80	0.59
H* 24 h	51.4	49.9	1.17	0.42
L* 24 h	41.2	41.0	0.62	0.78

DMI dry matter intake, BW body weight, ADG average daily gain, GR the depth of muscle and fat tissue from the surface of the carcass to the lateral surface of the 12th rib 110 mm from the midline, a* redness, b* yellowness, c* Chroma, H* Hue angle, L* lightness, SEM standard error of means

ISSN: 1471-2180