Effect of coconut oil on antioxidant activity and blood indexes in goat lambs.

The experiment was to study the effect of different levels of coconut oil on antioxidant activity and blood indexes in Hainan black goats. 24 healthy lambs of 10-day-old with similar body weight were randomly divided into four groups with six goats in each group. The additive dosage of coconut oil in control group (Ctrl group), LCO group, MCO group and HCO group was 0, 4, 6 and 8 g/d, respectively. The formal experiment lasted for 90 d. The results showed that compared with the control group, feeding coconut oil significantly increased the content of serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) of lambs (P<0.05), and extremely increased the content of low density lipoprotein (LDL) (P<0.01). Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was significantly increased in MCO group (P<0.05). The serum GH content of lambs in MCO group was significantly higher than that in control group (P<0.05). The serum malondialdehyde (MDA) content of lambs in HCO group was significantly higher than that in other three groups (P<0.05). The experiment indicates that feeding coconut oil can improve the blood indexes and antioxidant capacity of lambs and regulate the immune performance of the body, and the best level is 6 g/d. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]