Effects of alfalfa hay meal on growth performance, antioxidant and immune values of Sichuan white geese

Experiments conducted to determine the effects of alfalfa hay meal on growth performance, antioxidant and immune values of Sichuan white geese. A total of 160 geese were randomly assigned to four treatment groups by equal sex (four replicates per treatment with ten geese per replicate). Four diets, including control feed (C), control feed plus 10% (T1), 20% (T2) and 30% (T3) of alfalfa hay meal, were fed to geese, respectively. Results of the study showed that 1) T1 significantly increased average daily gain of geese (P0.05) and decreased feed gain ratio (P0.05); there were no significant differences in average daily gain and feed gain ratio between T2 and control group (P0.05); comparing with control group, average daily gain in T3 was no difference (P0.05), but feed gain ratio were significant higher (P0.05). 2) Comparing with the control, T2 significantly increased SOD and GSHPx activity in liver and muscle of geese (P0.05), but markedly decreased MDA content (P0.05); there were significant differences in breast muscle SOD activity of T1 and T3 comparing with the control, and in liver MDA content of T1 (P0.05), and no differences in other antioxidant indices (P0.05). 3) T3 significantly increased thymus index, bursa of fabricius index and serum IgG level (P0.05) comparing with the control; there were no significant differences in immune indices between T1 and the control (P0.05); thymus index of geese in T2 was significant higher than that in the control (P0.05), but other immune indices had no difference (P0.05). The findings suggested that the addition of appropriate level of alfalfa hay meal could improve growth performance, as well as antioxidant and immunity of Sichuan white geese.