Dvalishvili VG, Fathala MM, Vinogradov IS and Dawod A
The study was conducted to investigate growth performance, nutrient digestibility, carcass quality measures and some serum blood parameters of purebred and crossbred Romanov male lambs (7/8 Romanov:1/8 Argali). For this purpose two groups of sheep were formed, the first consisted of 163 ewes with 2 rams of purebred Romanov sheep, while the second consisted of 49 purebred Romanov ewes with one crossbred ram (3/4 Romanov:1/4 Argali). The ewes were mated with the rams from the same group. Newly born lamb survivability and live body weight were estimated just after lambing. The lambs kept in the experiment till the age of 4 months (weaning age) then ten male lambs from each group were selected and kept under the same feeding and housing condition till the age of 8 months. The lamb keeping index, growth performance, nutrient digestibility, carcass traits and some serum blood parameters were determined for each lamb group.
The results of the study revealed that, the crossbred Romanov male lambs (7/8 Romanov:1/8 Argali) had 4.80 kg more in their body weight as well as 19 g of average daily gain by the age of 8 months. Crossbred lambs had 2.8 kg more in their hot carcass weight over the purebred ones. Crossbred Romanov lambs had higher lamb keeping index, growth performance and nutrient digestibility than purebred ones. Also, they have a better metabolic blood profile.
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