Effect of Chinese herbal medicine residue on growth performance, visceral organ development, meat quality and fatty acids of Xiangdong black goats.

The study was to investigate the effects of dietary Chinese herbal medicine residue on growth performance, visceral organ development, meat quality and fatty acid of Xiangdong black goats. A total of 24 healthy Xiangdong black goats were randomly assigned to four groups with three replicates per group and two goats per replicate. The control group (group I) was basal diet, and the basal diet supplemented with 3% (group II), 6% (group III) and 9% (group IV) Chinese herbal residue was used as the experimental group. The per-experimental period lasted for 10 days, and the experimental period was 84 days. The results showed that the feed intake in experimental group was significantly higher than group I (P<0.05), the average daily gain of groups II and III were significantly higher than group I (P<0.05). Tthe rumen and spleen indexes of group IV were significantly lower than group I (P<0.05), the gastric index in IV was significantly higher than group I (P<0.05). All experimental group a* value and group IV b* value were significantly lower than control group (P<0.05). The experiment indicates that Chinese herbal medicine residue can improve the performance, and no adverse effect on muscle quality of Xiangdong black goats. It is recommended that the optimal level of Chinese herbal residue in diets is 6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]