Some Immune Indices of Lactating Ewes Influenced by Feeding some Halophytes and Salt Tolerant Plants in the North Western Coast of Egypt

Abstract

Forty mature healthy Barki ewes at late pregnancy, aged 3-4 years and weighed 45.2 kg were randomly divided into 4 groups, to evaluate the effect of replacement of Berseem hay (BH) with dried leaves and stems of some halophytes and salt tolerant plants species on some hematological and immunologic indices. The 1 st group (G1), fed the control diet while the 2 nd (G2), 3 rd (G3) and 4 th (G4) groups, BH was replaced by Acacia saligna, Atriplex halimus and Cassava manihot esculenta, respectively. Blood samples were collected during suckling period at times 1 st , 4 th and 8 th week from ewes for hematological and immunological analysis. Results showed that, the number of red blood cells, hemoglobin and hematocrit% decreased significantly in time from the 1 st to both 4 th and 8 th weeks. Ewes in group 2 (G2) represented the highest significant values of mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin. The highest white blood cells count was in the 1 st week. Blood ALPHA 1 % and ALPHA 2 % showed significant differences between groups and the times of treatments. Differences of GAMA GL %, complement 3 and 4 levels were significant between the three times of treatments. Differences of IgG level between groups and time of treatments were significant. In conclusion, the replacement of barseem hay with dried leaves and stems of Acasia, Atriplex and Cassava plants had no adverse side effects on the studied hematological and immunological indices of lactating Barki ewes.