Effect of Adding Thyme, Rosemary and Cinnamon Powder to the Feed On Some Productive and Biochemical Characteristics in Local Lambs.

• Hassan Hamid Mawloud ALbayati1 Adnan Shakor Ahmed Al-perkhdri 2

  Author

This study was conducted at the Agricultural Research and Experimental Station (Ruminant Raheb), College of Agriculture, University of Kirkuk, from July 22, 2025, to October 20, 2025, for a period of 91 days. Using sixteen local male lambs, aged 3–4 months with an average initial body weight of 24.878 kg, were used in the experiment. The animals were randomly allocated into four experimental treatments, with four lambs per treatment, according to a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The treatments were as follows: the first treatment served as the control (without additives); the second treatment included thyme powder at a level of 6 g/kg feed; the third treatment included rosemary powder at 6 g/kg feed; and the fourth treatment included cinnamon powder at 6 g/kg feed.

Productive traits measured included feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, and feed efficiency. In addition, several biochemical blood parameters were evaluated, including glucose, cholesterol, total protein, triglycerides, and the liver enzymes ALT and AST. The data were statistically analyzed using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD), and the means were compared using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (1955) within the SAS statistical software package (2001).

The results indicated that the rosemary treatment showed a significant (P ≤ 0.05) improvement in feed intake and final body weight. However, no significant differences were observed among treatments in body weight gain or feed conversion efficiency. The findings also revealed significant effects of some plant additives on biochemical blood parameters cinnamon supplementation increased blood glucose levels, thyme supplementation resulted in the highest triglyceride levels, while rosemary supplementation increased the activity of liver enzymes Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) and Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) within normal physiological ranges.

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