Effects of Chlorella on reproductive performance and serum cytokine content of Hanshan White cashmere goats

In order to investigate the effects of Chlorella on reproductive performance of female goats,44 Hanshan white cashmere goat ewes at 130 days of gestation were randomly divided into 2 groups with 22 ewes in each group. The ewes in control group were fed with basal diet（TMR）without chlorella. The ewes in experimental group were fed with basal diet supplemented with 40 mL chlorella per day（the effective content of Chlorella was 10 million/mL）. The experiment lasted for 50 days,including a 14-day pre-trial period and a 36-day trial period. The results showed as follows:chlorella had no significant effect on the birth weight of lambs（P＞0.05）,but the body weight and daily gain of lambs were significantly increased compared with the control group,the body weight and daily gain of lambs at 36 days of age in experimental group were increased by 13.49%（P＜0.01）and 18.05%（P＜0.01）. The diarrhea rate and mortality rate of lambs at 36 days of age in experimental group and control group were 13.64% and 37.50%,respectively,and the mortality rate was 9.09% and 25.00%,respectively. The average daily feed intake of ewe in experimental group was 9.89%lower than that in control group;The serum IL-6（P＜0.01）,IL-1β（P＜0.01）and IFN-alpha（P＜0.05）contents of experimental ewe were significantly decreased,and serum SOD and GSH contents were significantly increased（P＜0.05）.The per lamb profit in the experimental group（111.57 yuan/lamb）was 23.18 yuan/lamb higher than that in the control group（88.39 yuan/lamb）,increasing by 26.22%. The results indicated that chlorella had obvious positive effect on the reproductive performance of ewe.