Nutrition during mating is one of the most important factors affecting the reproductive performance of ewes. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effect of vitamin AD3E injection around mating on body weight (BW), body condition score (BCS), plasma hormones
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Nutrition during mating is one of the most important factors affecting the reproductive performance of ewes. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effect of vitamin AD3E injection around mating on body weight (BW), body condition score (BCS), plasma hormones, minerals, metabolites, vitamins, anti-oxidant enzymes and reproductive performance of Afshari ewes. Eighty-eight Afshari ewes were divided into 2 groups (n=44) based on age (2-4 years), BW (average 40 kg) and BCS (mean 2.75) and assigned randomly to one of the two experimental treatments. Experimental treatments consisted of control (C; no vitamin AD3E injection) and AD3E injection (AD3E) groups. Ewes in AD3E group received 5 mL of vita-min AD3E solution subcutaneously at the beginning of the experiment, the day of CIDR insertion, the day of CIDR removal, and one week after mating. Two weeks after the start of the experiment, the estrous cy-cles of all ewes were synchronized using intravaginal 12-day CIDRs. The BW, BCS and plasma minerals and metabolites concentrations of ewes did not influence by experimental treatments (P>0.05). Ewes re-ceived AD3E had lower estrogen (E2) and progesterone (P4) and higher testosterone concentrations at the day of CIDR removal (P0.05) between the treatment groups in reproductive outcomes including estrous response, fertility rate, lambing rate, twining rate and lamb sex and birth weight. These results indicated that vitamin AD3E injection around mating improved antioxidant enzyme status but had no significant effect on reproductive performance of Afshari ewes. Further researches are needed to evaluate the effect of different levels of vitamin AD3E injection around mating on reproductive performance of Afshari ewes.
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