Effects of different hay: concentrate ratios on body and testicular-epididymal biometry and metabolic profile of Santa Ines lambs (original) (raw)

2016, Semina: Ciências Agrárias

This study was carried out to verify the effects of different hay: concentrate ratios on body, testicular and epididymal development and metabolic profile of hair sheep lambs. Twenty-nine Santa Ines lambs were used. Treatments consisted of diets with different hay: concentrate ratios (100:0-Control, 80:20- T1, 60:40-T2, 40:60-T3 and 20:80-T4). The characteristics evaluated were: body weight (BW), body condition score (BCS), hearth girth (HG), body length (BL), height at withers (HW), height at rump (HR), rump width (RW), chest width (CW), scrotal perimeter (SP), testis length (TL) testis width (TW), testis thickness (TT), cauda epididymal length (CEL), cauda epididymal width (CAW), cauda epididymal thickness (CET), scrotal skin thickness (SST) and testicular volume (TV). Blood samples were collected to analyze glucose, urea, albumin, total cholesterol, total proteins, inorganic phosphate and magnesium concentrations. The body and testicular-epididymal measurements increased linearly...