Effect of different levels of Camellina sativa meal in total mixed ration on feed intake, performance and nutrients digestibility of fattening lambs

The aim of this research was to evaluate the effects of different levels of camelina sativa meal (CSM) (native variety of Soheil) on nutrients intake, growth performance and apparent nutrient digestibility of Lori-Bakhtiari fattening lambs. A total of 30 fattening lambs with average age of 4 to 5 month (average live weight of 34.5 ± 5.0 kg) were used in a completely randomized design with 3 treatments and 10 replications for 56 days. Experimental diets were replacing soybean meal with CSM at levels 0 (control), 5 and 10% diet of dry mater (DM). The results showed that by increasing the level of the CSM in the diet up to 10%, except fot ether extract consumption which increased linearly (P <0.05), intake of other nutrients including DM, organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neurtal detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were similar among experimental diets (P >0.05). In term of performance traits, final body weight, total weight gain, average daily gain and feed conversion ratio were unchanged during the entire fattening period and once every two weeks by feeding experimental diets (P >0.05). Also, experimental diets did not affect nutrients digestibility of DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF (P >0.05). In general, the results of the present study showed that the use of native variety of camelina meal instead of soybean meal as a new protein source is recommended up to 10% in fattening lambs diet.