Dietary Effects of Pomegranate Pomace Powder with or without Tannase Enzyme on Growth Performance and some Blood Parameters of Moghani Male Lambs

Introduction: One of the important by-products is the pomegranate pulps which is pulp left after pomegranate juice. The presence of significant amounts of biologically active compounds such as phenolic acid, flavonoids, and tannins in pomegranate fruit ensures its high nutritional value. Pomegranate peel is a part of the fruit that has very high antioxidant properties and contains high amounts of polyphenols such as tannins. There have been numerous reports of the negative effects of tannins on consumer animals. One of the compounds that can bind to tannins and reduce their harmful effects is the tannase enzyme. So, this study aimed to investigate the effects of using different levels of pomegranate pulp without or in combination with tannase enzyme in the diet of fattening lambs on performance, nutrient digestibility, and some blood parameters.Materials and Methods: After preparing pomegranate pulp, drying it, and preparing tannase enzyme, 25 male Moghani lambs with an average weight of 30±2 kg and the average age is about 7 months, were used in four treatments in a completely randomized design. experimental treatments include 1- control, 2- 2.5% pomegranate pulp powder, 3- 5% pomegranate pulp powder, 4- 2.5% pomegranate pulp powder + 0.05 % dry matter of tannase enzyme 5- 5% pomegranate pulp powder + 0.05 % dry matter of tannase enzyme. During the experimental period, the performance parameters including feed intake, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio were measured. The concentration of blood parameters and the activity of liver enzymes containing ALP, ALT, and AST in the blood of lambs were determined. The Data obtained were analyzed using SAS (9/1) statistical software.Results and Discussion: The experimental treatments demonstrated no significant impact on the weight gain and feed intake of the lambs. However, when examining the amount of feed consumption and daily feed consumption, higher values were observed during the second 30 days of the rearing period in comparison to the initial 30 days.While nutrient digestibility remained largely unaffected, a notable trend in the digestibility of dry matter was observed. Further comparisons between treatments revealed a higher digestibility of organic matter, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and ash in the group receiving 2.5% pomegranate pomace. These findings provide insights into the potential influence of pomegranate pomace supplementation on specific aspects of nutrient utilization in lamb diets. Fat in the treatment of 2.5% pomace with enzyme and digestibility of crude protein was higher in the treatment of 5% pomace with the enzyme. The comparison of different pomace levels showed that the use of high levels of pomegranate pomace (5%) increased blood glucose and the lowest blood urea concentration was obtained by feeding 5% pomace. The lowest concentrations of HDL and LDL in the blood also belonged to the control treatment. The use of tannase enzymes in the diet also increased the concentration of glucose parameters and decreased blood urea. The highest amount of glucose of the studied lambs were observed in the first thirty days of sampling. In the present study, the use of pomegranate pomace increased glucose in both rearing periods and decreased blood triglyceride levels in the second rearing period. Alanine phosphatase (ALP) enzyme activity was significant in the second period, the breeding period (P<0.05). The highest level of activity of this enzyme was observed in the blood of lambs fed with 2.5% of dung. The activity of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) was not significant between sampling periods (P<0.05). Feeding different levels of pomegranate pomace powder with or without tannase enzyme had no significant effect on blood malondialdehyde concentration as an antioxidant index of the blood of fattening lambs. However, the comparison between the experimental treatments showed that the highest level of this index was found in the blood samples obtained from lambs fed with a diet containing 5% of pomegranate pomace powder + 0.05% of the dry matter of the tannase enzyme diet.Conclusion: The inclusion of different levels of pomegranate pomace in the diet led to a significant difference in the activity of the alanine phosphatase enzyme among the experimental treatments (P<0.05) and increased blood glucose (P<0.05). None of the functional parameters, including weight gain, and feed consumption, were affected by the use of pomegranate pulp with or without tannase enzyme during the entire experimental period. However, the food conversion coefficient improved in the treatments containing pomegranate pomace with tannin enzyme. The highest amount of antioxidant index related to the diet containing 5% of pomegranate pomace powder + 0.05% of the diet's dry matter was tannase enzyme. Therefore, the level of 5% of pomegranate pomace along with the tannase enzyme increases animal health and improves animal growth performance.