Effects of different wheat granule proportions on slaughtering performance and regurgitation development of Qinghai Tibetan sheep

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of the addition of different proportions of wheat to the pellet feed on slaughtering performance and stomach tissue morphology of Qinghai Tibetan sheep. Ninety high prototype Tibetan lambs approximately 2～3 months old with similar initial weights (21.87 ± 2.35) kg, consistent parity, and good health were selected and randomly divided into three groups of five sheep in six replicates. Proportions of 0 (T₀ group), 10% (T₁₀ group), and 15% (T₁₅ group) wheat were used to replace corn in concentrate. The trial was divided into a pre-trial period of 15 days and a positive trial period of 90 days. The results showed that: 1) the carcass weight, slaughter rate, and carcass fat content value of the T₀ group were significantly higher than that of the T₁₅ group (P < 0.05), and there was no significant difference between the T₀ group and T₁₀ group (P > 0.05). 2) the weight of the stomach in the T₀ group was significantly higher than that in the T₁₅ group (P < 0.05), and there was no significant difference between the T₀ and T₁₀ groups (P > 0.05). and 3) compared with that of the T₀ group, the thickness of the granular layer, papilla length, papilla width, muscularis thickness, papilla length of flap stomach, and muscularis thickness of abomasum in the T₁₀ group were significantly increased (P < 0.05). We conclude that it is feasible to use 10% wheat instead of corn in concentrate, considering the slaughtering performance of Tibetan sheep and the morphological development of the stomach.