Effect of activated clinoptilolite and inactive brewer’s yeast mixture on loin eye muscle and body indexes in fattening period

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary activated clinoptilolite and inactive brewer’s yeast mixture (CBY) on the loin eye muscle (MLD) and body indexes. For this purpose, a total of 48 Kivircik male lambs at the weaning age of 62 ± 4 days and with the initial live weight of 23.80 ± 3.19 kg were randomly allocated to one control group (CON) and three treatments groups (namely CBY-Ι, CBY-ΙΙ, and CBY-ΙΙΙ), each containing 12 lambs. 0, 1, 3, and 5 g/kg of CBY were added to the diets, respectively, as fed basis. The trial lasted for 63 days, of which 7 days were spent for adaptation to the diets and 56 days for the data collection. All the animals received 150 g of chopped alfalfa hay and their specifically formulated experimental diets ad libitum. There was no significant difference between the treatments in terms of MLD depth and fat thickness (FT) (p > 0.05). The addition of 3 and 5 g/kg CBY to the lamb diets increased the MLD depth (+1.87% in CBY-ΙΙ and +4.67% in CBY-ΙΙΙ) and decreased the FT (–13.29% in CBY-ΙΙ). Furthermore, a significant difference was observed between the treatments in terms of index of height (IH) (p < 0.05). It was concluded that adding 3 g/kg CBY to the lamb diets to increase the MLD depth, decrease the FT, and improve the body indexes may have some economic benefits in the fattening period.