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The aim of this experiment was to study the effects of different levels of plant essential oils on the growth performance, nutrient apparent digestibility, serum biochemical indexes, and diarrhea status of Liaoning cashmere goat weaning lambs. A total of 48 healthy weaned male lambs with a body weight of (16.92±0.50) kg and age of (90±5) days were randomly divided into four groups with three replicates per group and four goats per replicate. Lambs in control group, test group 1, test group 2 and test group 3 were fed granule diets containing 0, 0.01%, 0.03%, and 0.05% plant essential oil, respectively. The pre-test period was seven days, and the formal experiment period was 53 days. The results showed that the average daily gain in test groups 1, 2, and 3 was extremely higher than that in control group (P<0.01), and the ratio of feed to gain was significantly lower than that in control group (P<0.05). The apparent digestibility of digestible energy, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, acid detergent fiber, calcium, and total phosphorus in test group 2 were extremely higher than those in control group (P<0.01). The concentrations of serum glucose, insulin, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and albumin in test group 2 were extremely higher than those in control group (P<0.01). Serum glucagon and uric acid concentrations were extremely lower than those of control group (P<0.01), and serum non-esterification fatty acid, β-hydroxybutyric acid and urea nitrogen concentrations were significantly lower than those of control group (P<0.05). The activities of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase in serum of test group 2 were extremely higher than those of control group (P<0.01), and the content of malondialdehyde was significantly lower than that of control group (P<0.05). The diarrhea rate of lambs in test groups 1, 2 and 3 was lower than that in control group, the recovery rate was higher than that in control group, and the recovery time and treatment cost were extremely lower than that in control group (P<0.01). The results show that supplementation of 0.03% plant essential oil in the diet of weaned lambs can improve growth performance, apparent digestibility of nutrients, enhance metabolic efficiency of carbohydrate, lipid and protein, improve antioxidant capacity, reduce diarrhea rate and shorten the recovery time of diarrhea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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