posted on 2023-05-17, 08:24authored byHolman, B, Kashani, A, Malau-Aduli, AEO
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Spirulina supplementation, sire breed and sex on the wool characteristics of purebred and crossbred Merino weaned lambs under a single pasture-based management system. Lambs sired by Merino, White Suffolk, Dorset, Black Suffolk breeds were randomly allocated into 3 treatments – the control group grazing without Spirulina (0 mL), low (100 mL) and high (200 mL) Spirulina groups. All lambs were kept as a single mob in paddocks, grazed for 9 weeks and wool samples analysed. Differences in wool quality between the control and supplemented groups were not significant (P>0.05). However, sire breed significantly (P<0.001) influenced fibre diameter, spinning fineness, comfort factor and fibre curvature with purebred Merinos having superior wool quality than crossbreds. Wethers grew higher quality wool than ewes. Spirulina has a potential as an alternative supplementary bioresource in dual-purpose sheep feeding because it does not compromise wool quality in supplemented weaner lambs.
Funding
Australian Wool Education Trust
History
Publication title
Italian Journal of Animal Science
Volume
13
Pagination
387-391
ISSN
0390-0487
Department/School
Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA)
Publisher
Pagepress
Place of publication
Italy
Rights statement
Copyright 2014 The Authors-This article has been distributed under the terms of The Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported license. (CC BY-NC 3.0)