Effects of dietary menthol-rich bioactive lipid compounds on zootechnical traits, blood variables and gastrointestinal function in growing sheep

Table 3 Effect of two doses of dietary menthol-rich plant bioactive lipid compounds (PBLC) on daily body weight (BW) gain and daily nutrient dry matter intake in sheep

Attribute	Treatment^a,b			SEM	Contrast^c
Attribute	Control	PBLC-L	PBLC-H		1	2	3
Initial BW, kg^c	35.5	34.3	35.9	0.83	0.69	0.18	0.71
Final BW, kg	39.1	38.4	39.7	0.63	0.47	0.43	0.84
Average daily BW gain, g/d^d	170	195	180	12.8	0.61	0.32	0.34
Hay intake, g/d	660	707^#	725^#	25.6	0.090	0.65	0.091
Hay intake, g/(d · kg BW)	17.6	19.1^#	19.0^#	0.55	0.091	0.25	0.047
Total feed intake, g/d	1209	1255^#	1272^#	25.0	0.094	0.64	0.093
Total feed intake, g/(d · kg BW)	32.4	34.1^#	33.4^#	0.51	0.17	0.073	0.041
Crude protein intake, g/d	213	215^#	225*	3.58	0.022	0.40	0.096
NDF intake, g/d	532	552	578	19.5	0.12	0.77	0.13

NDF: neutral detergent fibre; SEM: standard error of mean
^aControl: without PBLC; PBLC-L: lower dose (80 mg/d) of PBLC; and PBLC-H: higher dose (160 mg/d) of PBLC
^bOne outlier for average daily gain (g/d) < 97, hay intake (g/d) < 525, total feed intake (g/d) < 1126, and hay intake (g/kg BW) < 15.3 was removed for PBLC-L (n = 7) before statistical analyses
^cContrast: 1 = linear effect; 2 = quadratic effect; and 3 = Control versus both PBLC groups
^dAverage daily gain and the initial BW to calculate this gain are based on the last 21 d of the study to nullify the effect of rumen fill during the first week that might have occurred due to changes in feed intake by PBLC
^#/*Mean values differ compared with the control at P < 0.10/0.05

ISSN: 2049-1891