Three experiments were designed to study the effects of nitrate added to feed upon the gains and blood constituents of sheep. Forty-one Japanese Corriedale wethers, six months of age and about 25kg in body weight were used in these experiments.
In the experiment 1, sixteen wethers were divided into four uniform lots and the amounts of potassium nitrate added to feed were as follows: Lot 1; none, Lot 2; 0.04, Lot 3; 0.06 and Lot 4; 0.08 per cent of body weight per head per day. They were fed (equal feed) a restricted amount of the ration composed of 80 per cent wheat bran and 20 per cent alfalfa meal twice a day and also a constant amount of Italian ryegrass, weed and silage (1kg per head per day) which were known to contain very small amount of nitrate. All the animals were group-fed throughout the experimental period of 125 days. The levels of protein and energy of the feed were low and the estimated DCP and TDN levels of the feed were set at 95 and 60 per cent of the recommendations according to N. R. C. (1957). It was because the effects of nitrate in feed upon the performance of ruminants seemed to be severe in the underfed animals. The average daily gains of the animals during the experimental period were as follows: Lot 1; 53.6g, Lot 2; 49.6g, Lot 3; 52.8g and Lot 4; 37.6g.
In experiment 2, fifteen wethers were divided into two lots and the amounts of potassium nitrate added to feed were as follows: Lot 1; none and Lot 2; 0.06 per cent of body weight per day. Feeding method was almost equal to that in the experiment 1, except adding a small amount of rice straw (100g per head per day) to the concentrate rations. The average daily gains of the animals during the experimental period of 140 days were as follows: Lot 1; 63.8g and Lot 2; 63.4g.
In the experiment 3, ten wethers were divided into two lots and the amounts of potassium nitrate added to feed were as follows: Lot 1; none and Lot 2; 0.08 per cent of body weight per day. Feeding method and the experimental period were equal to those in the experiment 2. The average daily gains of the animals were as follows: Lot 1; 90.0g and Lot 2; 75.7g.
From the results of these three experiments, the addition of nitrate more than 0.08 per cent of body weight as potassium nitrate per head per day seemed to depress the daily gains of the under-fed wethers.
In these three experiments, it was remarked that the concentrations of total haemoglobin and methaemoglobin, and the number of red blood corpuscles in the blood of the nitrate-fed animals were fairly more than those in the blood of the control animals at the end of the experiments. It should be a compensation for deficient oxygenation from methaemoglobin formation in the blood of the nitrate-fed animals. However, the number of white blood corpuscles was not different among these animals.
It was also observed that no visible differences were found in the status of liver, kidney, pancreas and digestive tracts among these wethers slaughtered at the end of the experiments. However, splenomegaly was frequently found in the wethers ingesting potassium nitrate more than 0.06 per cent of body weight. No differences were found in the weight of thyroid and adrenal glands among the animals. Furthermore, it was remarked in these experiments that the effects of nitrate added to feed upon the gains of sheep seemed to he variable among the individual animals.
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