The purpose of the experiment was to study the effects of Chinese herbal compound in high concentrate diet on growth performance,apparent digestibility of nutrients,serum biochemical indexes,immunity,anti-inflammatory,and antioxidant functions of sheep.Thirty 3-month-old male lambs with the body weight of(20.81±1.27)kg were randomly divided into three groups with ten replicates in each group and one lamb in each replicate.The ratio of concentrate to crude in basal diet was 75∶25,and the addition amount of Chinese medicine compound in control group,Zl group,and Z3 group was 0,10,30 g/d,respectively.The pre-test period was 15 days,and the formal test period was 50 days.The results showed that compared with the control group,adding 30 g/d Chinese herbal compound could increase the final body weight and average daily gain of sheep(P<0.05),decrease the feed-weight ratio(P<0.05),increase the apparent digestibility of crude protein(P<0.05),decrease the content of serum urea nitrogen(P<0.05),decrease the content of serum triglyceride(P<0.05),increase the contentrations of low density lipoprotein cholesterol and high density lipoprotein cholesterol(P<0.05),increase the total antioxidant capacity and the activities of catalase,glutathione peroxidase and total superoxide dismutase in serum(P<0.05),decrease the content of malondialdehyde in serum(P<0.05),increase the activities of acid phosphatase and lysozyme in serum and the contentrations of immunoglobulin and interferon-y in serum(P<0.05),and decrease the contentrations of nitric oxide,lipopolysaccharide,interleukin-1β,interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α in serum(P<0.05).The study indicates that adding 30 g/d of Chinese medicine compound in high concentrate diet can improve the antioxidant capacity and immune function of sheep,reduce the level of serum pro-inflammatory factors,relieve the inflammation of the body,improve the daily gain and apparent digestibility of nutrients of sheep,and has a positive impact on keeping the health of sheep.
high-concentrate dietChinese herbal medicine additivesheepgrowth performanceimmunityantioxidant capacity