Journal
ARCHIVES OF ANIMAL NUTRITION
Volume 71, Issue 4, Pages 272-284Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/1745039X.2017.1316137
Keywords
Carnosic acid; feed supplements; haematology; lambs; stress; transport of animals
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Funding
- Spanish National Research Council CSIC [201540E084]
- JAE-Predoc grant from the CSIC
- JAE
- Council of Castile and Leon
- European Social Fund
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To elucidate the influence of dietary carnosic acid (CA) and vitamin E on animal performance, immune response indicators and haematological parameters before and after transport stress, 24 lambs were individually fed ad libitum with milk replacer (MR) using an auto-feeder. Once daily the lambs received MR alone (Group CON, n = 8), MR + 0.096g CA/kg live weight (LW) (Group CARN, n = 8) or MR + 0.024 g of alpha-tocopheryl acetate per kg LW (Group VitE, n = 8). After reaching the target slaughter weight (12 +/- 0.5kg), blood samples were collected to measure haematological and immunological parameters. Then, lambs were subjected to 4-h road transport and blood samples were collected again for haematological assessment. The animals were subsequently slaughtered. Before road transport, dietary CA supplementation promoted a descent of circulating white blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), haematocrit and haemoglobin concentration when compared with Groups CON and VitE (p < 0.05), but it did not affect production of cytokines by blood mononuclear cells. Road transport did not affect either RBC or haematocrit significantly. Nevertheless, transport affected leucocyte profile similarly in all the treatments, increasing granulocytes and monocytes proportions and decreasing lymphocytes. In contrast, after transport, WBC was increased in Group CARN, reaching similar values than Groups CON and VitE. However, under conditions of the present study, those modifications did not influence animal performance or immunity parameters of artificially reared suckling lambs.
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