The effect of replacing soybean meal with corn germ meal in diet on feed intake, ruminal parameters and blood metabolites of Atabai fattening lambs

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of replacing soybean meal with corn germ meal in diet on feed intake, rumen parameters and blood metabolites of Atabai fattening lambs. Thirty lambs (with an average weight of 32±2.7 kg) were randomly divided into 3 groups with 10 repetitions. The lambs of the control group were fed with the feed without corn germ meal. Other groups were fed by replacing 50% and 100% of soybean meal with corn germ meal in the diet for 84 days. Results showed that there was no significant difference between the experimental treatments in the final weight of lambs and dry matter intake (P>0.05). No significant difference was observed in protozoa population, pH and volatile fatty acids among different treatments (P>0.05). Also, there was no significant difference in rumen ammonia nitrogen during fasting and six hours after morning feeding (P>0.05). However, rumen ammonia nitrogen increased 3 hours after morning feeding (P<0.05). Among the different treatments, there was no significant difference in blood glucose, cholesterol, globulin, albumin-globulin ratio (P>0.05), but replacing soybean meal with corn sprout meal increased the concentration of triglyceride, urea, total proin, and high-density lipoprotein. Low and very low density lipoprotein and decrease of lipoprotein increased with density (P<0.05). In general, corn germ meal can be completely replaced with soybean meal without affecting the health and production of fattening lambs.