Use of dried poultry litter in the diet of pregnant and lactating Awassi ewes.

Two groups of 45 Awassi ewes, were fed a control diet (group C) or a diet containing 0.30 poultry litter from laying birds (group PL). The experiment began when the rams were put with the ewes and continued through pregnancy and lactation. Mean weight changes of ewes of both groups were small and not significantly different. The numbers of ewes that lambed and the numbers of lambs weaned, as proportions of the number of ewes mated, were 0.91 and 0.73 respectively for group C, and 0.93 and 0.70 for group PL. The mean weaning weight of lambs of group C (20.6 kg) was just significantly greater than the value for group PL (18.4 kg) but the estimated mean daily milk yields, 0.716 and 0.626 kg respectively, did not differ significantly. Differences in breeding and lactation performance, between ewes given the control and those given the poultry litter diet, were small for all the data obtained. Also, there was no disease problem related to the use of poultry litter; and the food products milk and cheese, from ewes given poultry litter, were just as acceptable as those from ewes given the control diet.