Performances and Meat Cholesterol Content of Fat Tail Sheep Fed Diets Supplemented with Sardinella Fish Oil Based Ca-soap Mixed with Herbal

Abstract

Previous results showed that sardinella fish oil based Ca-soap supplementaion at level a of 3.0% in ration reduced meat LDL cholesterol of lamb by 49% and improved feed utilization efficiency by 13%. However, sardinella fish oil based Ca-soap had bad fishy smell causing low palatability of feed and reduced feed intake. In Indonesian tradition, fishy smell is ussualy overcomed by applying herbal. This experiment aimed to elaborate herbal meal addition (ginger, turmeric, and beluntas leaf) into sardinella fish oil based Ca-soap in reducing its fishy smell, and subsequently improve its palatability. Sixteen male fat tail sheep were allocated into four experimental treatments with four replicates and arranged in a block randomized design. The experimental period lasted for 14 weeks and the animals had free access to feed (concentrate: native grass in ratio of 1:1) and water. At the end of experiment, two sheep from each treatment were slaughtered. The treatments were T0 (without herbal addition), T1 (with turmeric addition), T2 (with ginger addition), and T3 (with beluntas leaf addition). Herbal Ca-soap, at level of 3%, were mixed thoroughly with feed ingredients to produce concentrate diet. The variables measured were feed intake, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio, blood triglicerides and meat cholesterol content. The results showed that addition of sardinella fish oil based Ca-soap mixed with herbal slightly reduced feed intake and daily gain, but improved feed efficiency utilization. Herbal addition reduced cholesterol, but increased triglicerides content of blood plasm. Herbal addition, except for beluntas leaf, also reduced cholesterol content of meat. It is concluded that sheep fed sardinella oil based Ca-soap with turmeric addition had better performance and lower cholesterol of meat.