Metabolic assessment of the use of probiotic or monensin in lambs kept in semi-confined conditions

The objective of this study was to verify probiotics and monensin effects on metabolic parameters in weaning lambs. In the experiment 1, thirty lambs divided in three groups were fed during 6 weeks. The lambs were enrolled in one of the following treatments: GC1: as a control, GB1: Bacillus cereus var. toyoi (1x106 spores/g) and GS1: Saccharomyces boulardii (1x106 viable cells/g). In the experiment 2, thirty lambs divided in three groups were fed during 8 weeks. The treatments consisted in GC2: as a control, GM2: monensin (500g/t) and GS2: Saccharomyces boulardii (1x106viable cells/g). In both experiments blood samples were collected weekly aiming to measure metabolic parameters as glucose, triacylglycerol (TAG), cholesterol, albumin, urea, aspartate amino transferase (AST), creatinine kinase (CK) and gamma glutamil transferase (GGT). The results from experiment 1 demonstrated that GS1 had greater (P