Impact of ginger powder (Zingiber officinale) supplementation on the performance, biochemical parameters, antioxidant status, and rumen fermentation in Ossimi rams

Vet World Vol.17 July-2024 Article - 24

Research Article

Veterinary World, 17(7): 1619-1628

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.1619-1628

Montaser Elsayed Ali¹, Sulaiman A. Alsalama², Sarah A. Al-Thubyani³, Narjes Baazaoui⁴, Ahmed Ezzat Ahmed⁵, Mohamed-Emad A. Nasser⁶, and Heba A. Nasr⁷

1. Department of Animal Productions, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut 71524, Egypt.
2. Department of Biology, College of Science, Imam Mohamad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh 11623, Saudi Arabia.
3. Department of Biology, College of Science, Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia.
4. Department of Biology, Applied College Muhayil Assir, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia.
5. Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, 61413 Abha, Saudi Arabia.
6. Department of Animal Productions, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Egypt.
7. Department of Animal Medicine (Clinical and Laboratory Diagnosis), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Assiut University, 71526 Assiut, Egypt.

Background and Aim: Ginger (Zingiber officinale) has great potential as a growth promoter and immunostimulant in ruminant nutrition. This study assessed the impact of ginger powder supplementation on Ossimi rams’ rumen fermentation, biochemical parameters, and antioxidant levels.

Materials and Methods: Fifteen Ossimi rams, aged 10 ± 1.3 months and weighing 30 ± 1.5 kg. Rams were randomly divided into three experimental groups: The control group (G1) received standard feed, while ginger powder (5 g and 7 g/kg body weight [BW] for G2 and G3, respectively) mixed in water was administered to groups G2 and G3 before their standard feed.

Results: The control group recorded higher dry matter (DM) intake values (p < 0.05) than the ginger-treated groups. The ginger-treated groups showed superiority (p < 0.05) in weight gain and feed conversion compared to the control group. The digestion coefficients of DM, crude protein, and crude fiber were significantly (p < 0.05) increased by a high dose (7 g/Kg BW) of ginger supplementation, whereas organic matter, ether extract, and nitrogen-free extract digestibility remained unchanged. Compared to the control group, the rams given 5 g of ginger had significantly less (p < 0.05) total protein and globulin in their serum, but the rams given 7 g of ginger had significantly more (p < 0.05) of these proteins. In the ginger groups, these levels were significantly (p < 0.01) lower than those in the control group for serum creatinine, uric acid, urea, total lipids, triglycerides, total cholesterol, glucose, serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, and gamma-glutamyl transferase. Rams given ginger had significant growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor-1, total superoxide dismutase, GSH-Px, TAC, immunoglobulin (Ig) A, and IgG enhancement (p < 0.01), and a decrease (p < 0.01) in malondialdehyde concentration compared to the control group. Significant increases in total short-chain volatile fatty acids, acetic, propionic, and isovaleric acids (p < 0.05), and significant decreases in NH3N and protozoa (p < 0.01).

Conclusion: Ginger powder (5 g and 7 g) can improve growth, immune responses, antioxidant status, and ruminal parameters in rams. Further study is needed to evaluate the effect of ginger on different types of animals (cow, buffalo, and goat) to develop new feed additives.

Keywords: antioxidant status, biochemical parameters, ginger powder, rams, rumen fermentation.

How to cite this article: Ali ME, Alsalamah SA, Al-Thubyani SA, Baazaoui N, Ahmed AE, Nasser MA, and Nasr HA (2024) Impact of ginger powder (Zingiber officinale) supplementation on the performance, biochemical parameters, antioxidant status, and rumen fermentation in Ossimi rams, Veterinary World, 17(7): 1619-1628.

Received: 2024-03-27 Accepted: 2024-07-01 Published online: 2024-07-26

Corresponding author: Sarah A. Al-Thubyani E-mail: sthobyani@taibahu.edu.sa

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1619-1628

Copyright: Ali, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.