Effects of Dietary Slow-Release Urea Supplementation on Rumen Fermentation and Blood Biochemical Parameters in Sheep

• Ghassan Hameed Shehab Al-Jubouri and Mwaffuk Hussain Aljumaily

  Author

This study was conducted at the Sheep Farm of the Department of Animal Production, College of Agriculture, Tikrit University, from October 5, 2025, to January 5, 2026, to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation with slow-release urea (SRU) on the productive and physiological performance of Awassi lambs. Fifteen Awassi lambs were randomly assigned to three treatments, with five lambs per treatments, aged 3 – 4 months with an initial body weight of (26 kg),The first treatment served as the control group (without slow-release urea supplementation), whereas the second and third treatments received diets supplemented with (3%) and (5%) slow-release urea, respectively. The experiment lasted for (12 weeks) and was  arranged according to a Completely Randomized Design (CRD).

The results indicated that ruminal ammonia concentration increased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) in the third treatment compared with the second and first treatments, recording values of (17.40, 15.00, and 13.60), respectively. Regarding ruminal pH, no significant differences were  observed among the three treatments before feeding. However, one hour after feeding, the second treatment exhibited a significantly higher ruminal pH than the third and first treatments, recording values of (7.30, 7.02, and 6.20), respectively.

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