Effects of Rosmarinus officinalis L. as essential oils or in form of leaves supplementation on goat's production and metabolic statute.

The effects of rosemary supply in form of essential oils (REO) or leaves (RL) on performances of goats were investigated. Thirty goats were allocated into three equal groups, which were fed oat-hay ad libitum and 400 g of concentrate during the two last weeks of pregnancy and 600 g during the first 8 weeks of lactation. Three-control diet (C) was a mixture of barley, soybean meal and mineral vitamin supplement. The experimental concentrates contained the same mixture of the control diet plus 0.6 g/kg of REO or its equivalent supply RL (60 g/kg). Rosemary supply did not affect dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility. While urinary nitrogen loss was higher for experimental groups than the C (P = 0.03). Daily milk production was significantly higher (P = 0.007) for rosemary groups (694 and 582 ml for RL and REO, respectively) than C group (442 ml). Rosemary decreased numerically (P > 0.05) the fat content (23, 25 and 26.5 g/l for REO, RL and C groups, respectively) but significantly increased the fat (P = 0.003) and protein content (P = 0.008). The growth rate of kids was significantly higher (P = 0.008) for RL (111 g) than that for REO and C (97 and 83 g, respectively). However, rosemary has not shown significant effect on the plasma metabolite concentrations. Given the facility to obtain the rosemary leaves, this form of rosemary use is recommended as natural alternative to improve the performances of goats.