Growth Performance and Digestibility in Karadi Lambs Receiving Different Levels of Pomegranate Peels

The objective of current study was to determine the effect of different ratios of pomegranate peel in diets of Karadi lambs (0%, 1%, 2% or 4% as control, T1, T2 and T3, respectively) on body weight, total body gain, average daily gain, daily feed intake and apparent digestibility of nutrients. Sixteen Karadi male lambs weighing 23.29 ± 0.42 kg and 4.5-5 months old randomly divided into equally four treatment groups and individually penned for the period of 63 days. Results indicated that final body weight was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in lambs fed 1% or 2% pomegranate peel (PP) as compared to lambs fed 4% PP. The best improvements in total feed intake, total gain, average daily gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) in lambs fed 1% PP. The total dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), ash, nitrogen free extract (NFE) and metabolizable energy (ME) intake per (body weight 0.75 ) increased (P < 0.05) significantly in lambs fed 1% pomegranate peel (PP); however, the crude fiber (CF) intake decreased in lambs fed 1% PP as compared to other treatments. While, the dry matter digestibility (DMD), crude protein digestibility (CPD), crude fiber digestibility (CFD) and nitrogen free extract digestibility (NFED) were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in lambs fed 1% PP as compared to T2, T3 and control groups. In addition, EED increased significantly in T3 compared to other treatments. In conclusion, it was indicated that addition of pomegranate peel in diet at the rate of 1% or 2% had significant effect on Karadi lambs performance and digestibility.