›› 2015, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (2): 382-388.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2015.02.023

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Effects of Dietary Tannins Levels on Growth Development,Pedicle Initiation and Primary Velvet Antler Growth of Sika Deer (Cervus nippon)

YANG Yi-feng, CHEN Xiu-min, ZHAO Wei-gang, ZHAO Meng, XUE Hai-long, LI Guang-yu, WEI Hai-jun   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Special Economic Animal Molecular Biology, Institute of Special Animal and Plant Science of CAAS, Changchun 130112, China
  • Received:2014-08-01 Online:2015-02-20 Published:2015-02-13

Abstract: This experiment was conducted to study the effects of dietary tannins levels on growth development,pedicle initiation and primary velvet antler growth of young male sika deer (Cervus nippon).Twenty four 7-month-old male sika deer with similar body condition were randomly separated into four groups (6/group).The control group was fed with basal diets without tannins,groups Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ were fed with basal diets complementary with 1%,2% and 4% tannins,respectively.The trial lasted for 4 days,and 140 days for experiment.The results showed that the daily growth of body weight and height in group Ⅱ were significantly higher than that in control group (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in the daily growth of body length and circumference of canon among all groups (P>0.05).The pedicle initiation time of sika deer from the tannins-treated groups was earlier than that of control group.The length of both branch from groupⅠwas longer than the other groups,and the right branch of groupⅠwas significantly longer than that of group Ⅲ (P<0.05).The production of primary velvet antler in groups Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ was significantly higher than that in control group (P<0.05).In conclusion,supplementation of tannins promotes time of pedicle initiation,production of primary velvet antler and growth development of young sika deer.The optimum supplemental level of tannins in the diet of young sika deer was 2%.

Key words: tannins; sika deer; growth development; pedicle initiation; primary velvet antler

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