THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRULINA PLATENSIS AND CONCENTRATES ON LAMBS GROWTH

A. SHIMKIENE, Z. BARTKEVICHIUTE, J. CHERNAUSKIENE, A. SHIMKUS, A. CHERNAUSKAS, A. OSTAPCHUK, M. NEVITOV

Abstract: The experiment was carried out on a farm with Lithuanian Black Face and Romanov crossbred sheep.
Two analogous groups of the ewes were formed (control and experimental one), each containing 5 sheep.
The conventional ration for the experimental ewes individually and daily was mixed with pelleted preparation
of the blue algae Spirulina platensis containing 2 g blue algae biomass of 75 percent humidity preserved
with molasses. Feeding of this preparation to the ewes of this group started from the 120th day of
pregnancy and lasted up to 30 days of lambs' age. Later the lambs of the experimental ewes (kept in special
pens) were fed to satiety a mixture of oat flour and soybean meal from the 30th to the 60th day of age. The
lambs of the control group were not additionally given concentrates.
The experiment revealed that when the daily ration of the ewes was supplemented with Spirulina platensis
biomass the reproductive properties of the ewes improved. The newborn lambs had by 4.07 percent higher
weight and grew more intensively, the daily weight gain increased up to 10.7 percents. Spirulina platensis
preparations in the ration for the ewes stimulated some vitally important processes in the lambs during their
first weeks of life. When sucking lambs were additionally given oat flour and soybean meal mixture, up to
32.6 percent higher daily weight gain could be reached and at the age of 3 months the lambs weighed by
4.12 kg or 21.52 percents more than the lambs of the control group.

Keywords: concentrates; sheep; Spirulina platensis; sucking lambs; weight

Date published: 2022-08-12