Effect of dietary cation–anion difference on dry matter intake, digestibility, body weight gain, blood parameters, and carcass traits in Zandi lambs

The dietary cation–anion difference (DCAD) has gotten much attention recently; however, there is not much evidence on organic matter digestibility, blood parameters, dry matter intake, body weight, and carcass features of male sheep fed with different DCAD diets. The effects of dietary cation–anion difference (DCAD) on these traits in male lambs under the environmental high temperatures were investigated in this study. Forty male lambs (average body weight of 39 kg) were randomly assigned to one of five treatments with eight replicates. Lambs were fed diets with DCAD levels ranging from 150 (control group) to 300, 450, 600, and 750 mEq/kg dry matter. This study lasted 100 d and used a 21-d adaptation. The results showed that the control group had the highest dry matter intake, dry matter digestibility, and crude protein digestibility (P = 0.02). Also, the lowest amount of average body weight was observed in the control group (P = 0.01). The results showed the different DCAD levels affected the statistical significance in terms of live weight, carcass weight, length and width of muscle cross section, lung weight, spleen weight, and abdominal fat (P = 0.04). As well, the highest ruminal pH was observed in the control group (P = 0.4). The results of the blood glucose parameter showed that control group had a significant effect on the blood glucose level (P = 0.04). Furthermore, the highest abdominal fat weight was observed in the control group (P = 0.04). There was no statistically significant difference between other traits, including skin weight, head weight, leg weight, carcass length, liver weight, kidney weight, heart weight, testicle weight, tail weight, rumen weight, and lactation weight. In summary, increasing DCAD in the diet could improve the production and carcass quality in lambs under environmental high temperatures.