High dietary protein and energy content does not alter hepatic and renal health blood markers in growing lambs
Source: PubMed Central Open Access, NCBI / U.S. National Library of Medicine
This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different concentrate levels and increasing crude protein content in the diet on blood markers of hepatic and renal health in growing lambs. Two experiments were conducted with 64 non-castrated male Santa Inês lambs, four months old, with an initial average weight of 20 ± 1 kg. The lambs were housed in individual pens and fed ad libitum during a 57-days experimental period, with 14-days adaptation period. In Experiment 1 (Exp1), four diets with different concentrate levels (400, 500, 600, and 700 g/kg of DM) were tested, and in Experiment 2 (Exp2), four diets with different crude protein levels (120, 140, 160, and 180 g CP/kg of DM) were evaluated. Blood samples were collected on the 54day in both experiments for analysis of serum albumin, urea, cholesterol, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase (AP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT). The results indicated that the increase in digestible organic matter intake (dOM) did not affect the blood parameters analyzed (> 0.05). However, serum urea was above the reference range (17–43 mg/dL) in Exp1, while creatinine was below the reference range (1.2–1.9 mg/dL). In Exp2, the increase in crude protein intake led to a linear increase in serum urea (= 0.0002), although no changes were observed for AP, albumin, AST, ALT, GGT, creatinine, and cholesterol (> 0.05). This study demonstrated that increasing intake of dOM and CP above the
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different concentrate levels and increasing crude protein content in the diet on blood markers of hepatic and renal health in growing lambs. Two experiments were conducted with 64 non-castrated male Santa Inês lambs, four months old, with an initial average weight of 20 ± 1 kg. The lambs were housed in individual pens and fed ad libitum during a 57-days experimental period, with 14-days adaptation period. In Experiment 1 (Exp1), four diets with different concentrate levels (400, 500, 600, and 700 g/kg of DM) were tested, and in Experiment 2 (Exp2), four diets with different crude protein levels (120, 140, 160, and 180 g CP/kg of DM) were evaluated. Blood samples were collected on the 54day in both experiments for analysis of serum albumin, urea, cholesterol, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase (AP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT). The results indicated that the increase in digestible organic matter intake (dOM) did not affect the blood parameters analyzed (> 0.05). However, serum urea was above the reference range (17–43 mg/dL) in Exp1, while creatinine was below the reference range (1.2–1.9 mg/dL). In Exp2, the increase in crude protein intake led to a linear increase in serum urea (= 0.0002), although no changes were observed for AP, albumin, AST, ALT, GGT, creatinine, and cholesterol (> 0.05). This study demonstrated that increasing intake of dOM and CP above the requirements in growing lambs raises serum urea without affecting liver or renal health. Abs1