Response of Sheep to Dietary Soybean Haulms: Effect on Growth, Serum Indices and Oxidative Biomarkers Profile

Background and Objective: Utilization of crop residue in complete diets of ruminants may be a sustainable alternative for enhanced profitability in production. This research assessed the performance of sheep-fed dietary soybean haulms in a complete diet with or without garlic powder. Materials and Methods: Sixteen rams were divided into three treatment groups in a completely randomized design and assigned to three treatment diets as follows: Control (no soybean haulms inclusion), SHD (30% inclusion of soybean haulms) and SHGD (30% inclusion of soybean haulms+0.5% inclusion of garlic). The animals were managed on experimental diets for 77 days. Data collected on feed intake, weight changes, feed conversion ratio, hematological parameters and serum indices were subject to one-way analysis of variance using the GLM procedure of SPSS (version 23). Results: It indicated that weight changes, feed intake and FCR were not affected (p>0.05) by feeding 30% soybean haulms to sheep in complete diets with or without garlic powder. However, total protein, packed cell volume, hemoglobin, MCV, MCH and uric acid were reduced in the treatment group fed soybean haulms. The addition of garlic in a soybean haulms-based diet did not influence (p>0.05) the effects observed by the inclusion of soybean haulms. All other hematological parameters, blood metabolites and oxidative biomarkers were not affected (p>0.05) by the addition of soybean haulms in the complete diet of sheep. Conclusion: As 30% soybean haulms can be included in the complete diet of sheep as alternative feedstuff. Including soybean, haulms may also improve the animal’s antioxidant capacity by reducing uric acid.