Effect of different flax diet concentrations on body weight gain and some of blood parameters of Awassi sheep

Abstract

The study was conducted on 40 Awassi sheep through the year 2014 from the flock reared in Faculty of agriculture / Kufa University. Five treatments included levels of flax (0.0, 2, 4, 6 and 8) %. Body weight in three ages (live weight at 6month, at 9months and at 12 months) was evaluated using variance analyses. Results showed a significant effect (p≤ 0.05) of flax in live body weight the highest   BW6, BW9 and BW12 were in the males group that fed with 8% flax it's about 35.22, 46.06 and 58.22 kg respectively compared with the same level of diet flax in female group it's about 30.81, 37.26 and 47.37 kg respectively.                                                                           Results showed no significant effect of flax and sex in blood parameters of Awassi sheep but there were theoretical differences. The highest   total protein value was in male group that fed on 8% of flax its about 74.50 gm/L while the highest value of total lipids was found in the same group it's about 1.56 g/L. The highest value of urea was in male blood that fed on 6% of flax and the highest value of blood cholesterol was found in male group that fed on 8% of flax, it's about 11.28 and 2.51 respectively.