Effect of prenatal feeding of compound Chinese herbal medicine on reproductive performance and lamb health of Hu sheep.

The experiment was to explore the effect of prenatal feeding of compound Chinese herbal medicine preparation on the abortion rate and lambing rate of Hu sheep. A total of 2 100 ewes in late pregnancy were selected and randomly divided into two groups. Test group consisted of 1 100 ewes with 11 replicates, 100 sheep in each replicate. Control group was consisted of 1 000 ewes with 10 replicates and 100 sheep in each replicate. The sheep in control group were fed with basic feed, and sheep in test group were fed with test feed supplemented with 5 mL/head compound Chinese herbal medicine preparation for 10 d. The results showed that compared the control group, the abortion rate in test group was significantly reduced ( P<0.05). Compared with control group, the weak lambing rate and paralyzed sheep rate in test group were significantly reduced ( P<0.05). Compared with control group, the lamb mortality of test group was significantly reduced ( P<0.05), and the cure rate was significantly increased ( P<0.05). Compared with control group, the single tire weight, twin weight and triple tire weight were significantly increased ( P<0.05). The study indicates that the addition of 5 mL/head compound Chinese herbal medicine preparation to feed can improve the number of abortions, weak sheep and paralyzed sheep of pregnant ewes, and increase the lambing rate and the cure rate of lambs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]