Effect of feeding cellulase enzyme on productive responses of pregnant and lactating ewes and goats

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of supplementing the diets of Awassi ewes and Shami goats with exogenous fibrolytic enzyme on birth and weaning weight of lambs and kids and on milk production of dams in the first 60 days of lactation. Two groups of ewes (30 each) and two groups of goats (30 each) were used. One group of each species was supplemented with the fibrolytic enzyme during the last 2 months of pregnancy and the first 60 days of lactation. Birth and weaning weights for lambs and kids were recorded and analyzed, while milk production was measured daily and two milk samples were collected weekly from each dam and analyzed for milk composition. The results showed that treatment had no effect on birth weight, but it increased (P < 0.05) the weaning weight of both Awassi lambs and Shami kids. The treatment resulted in increased (P < 0.05) milk production of both Awassi ewes and Shami goats, with no effect on feed intake. The milk fat and protein percentages in treated Awassi ewes were higher (P < 0.05) than those for untreated ones, while no effect was observed on milk of treated goats. Total solids were higher (P < 0.05) in milk of treated groups of both species than the untreated ones. In conclusion, these results showed that using fibrolytic enzyme treatment improves growth of suckling lambs and kids and improvesmilk production, though the response may differ between sheep and goats. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.