1Department of Animal and Fish Production, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, P.O. Box, 402, Al-Ahsa, 31982, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
2Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, P.O. Box, 402, Al-Ahsa, 31982, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
3Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
4Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The feed supplements to ruminant animals have gained great attention of nutritionists to improve feed utilization, growth and reproductive performances during the past decades.
The animals feed supplements were classified into nutrient and non-nutrient feed additives. They include substances, micro-organisms or preparations. The feed supplements and their purified constituents were fed to give animals’ nutritional requirements and to improve the quality of feed and animal products.
Changes in animals’ production, reproduction and therapeutic performances have been confirmed over feeding supplements. Numerous purified components include β-carotene, antioxidant and others. The supplements change feed intake, nutrient digestibility and rumen fermentation products. Such enhancements in feed utilization and growth performances resulted in improvements of oocytes, embryos and feti quality. Furthermore, blood corpuscles and plasma parameters, immunity and therapeutic performances were altered due to feeding supplements. Hence, the current review article was designed to collect, consolidate and discuss the effects of feed supplements on productive, reproductive and therapeutic performances on mammalian species.
Embryos, Feed utilization, Growth, Immunity, Oocytes, Reproduction
