Effects of dietary conjugated linoleic acid on slaughter performance and gastrointestinal organ index of Hu sheep

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on the gastrointestinal index, production, and slaughter performance of fattening Hu sheep. Thirty 3～4 month-old male lambs with similar body weight (31.19 ± 0.53) kg and good body condition were randomly and evenly divided (n = 15 per group) into the control group (basal diet) and 2% CLA group. They were fattened for 70 days, involving a 10 day acclimation and 60 day feeding period. Adding CLA significantly increased carcass weight (P = 0.027) and slaughter percentage (P = 0.017) of Hu sheep, significantly decreased the percentage of cecum weight to intestinal weight (P = 0.020) and total gastrointestinal weight (P = 0.033), and significantly increased abomasum weight (P = 0.017). The length and width of jejunum villi, ileum villi length, and muscle thickness were significantly lower in the CLA group than the control group values (P = 0.026, 0.034, 0.013, and 0.005, respectively). Dietary 2% CLA can cause changes in small intestine morphology and improves carcass quality and slaughter rate of Hu sheep during the fattening period.