Authors : H.A. Tavasoli, M. Eslami, M. Mamouei, M. Chaji and M. Bojarpour
Abstract: This experiment was conducted to evaluation the effect of different levels of brown seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) or Tasco on carcass characteristics of Arabic lambs in Khuzestan, Iran. This research was conducted as completely randomized design with 3 treatments, 3 replicates and 3 lambs in each replicates. The dietary treatments were formulated according to NRC and containing: control 0, 1 and 2% Tasco. The basic diet includes 16.5% crud protein and 76.6% TDN and Tasco was added top-dress to basic diet. The period of experiment was 10 weeks; Twenty-seven male Arabic lambs (3 months old and 16.09±0.33 kg body weight) were assigned ad libitum to experimental diets. Supplementation of diets with Tasco resulted in decrease of tail-fat percentage (23%) and increased percentage of thigh (12.3%) than control (p<0.05) but adding Tasco had no significant effect on other parameters of carcass characteristics (p>0.05). Also, lambs fed diet contain 2% Tasco in comparison to control, had higher Hot Carcass Weight (HCW) (18.62 vs. 18.47 kg, respectively), Cold Carcass Weight (CCW) (18.20 vs. 17.83 kg, respectively) and Eye Muscle Area (EMA) (19.37 vs. 16.83 cm2, respectively). Meanwhile, supplementation of Tasco in diets decreased abdominal fat weight than those fed no seaweed (0.420, 0.300 and 0.250, respectively).
H.A. Tavasoli, M. Eslami, M. Mamouei, M. Chaji and M. Bojarpour, 2009. The Effect of Tasco (Ascophyllum nodosum) on Carcass Characteristics of Finishing Male Arabic Lambs. Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 4: 1148-1151.