الفهرس 
Introduction
Effect of drinking salinne waterOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The present study was carried out at the sheep farm of Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt during the period from March 11, 2016, to July 23, 2016. The aim of this study was to show the influence of betaine supplementation on performance, blood parameters, carcass characteristics, meat quality and histological parameters in lambs offered fresh or saline water. To achieve these objects, twenty Ossimi lambs with 31.5 kg averaged body weight and 9 months old were used. The growing lambs were assigned to 4 treatment groups (5 lambs of each). The array of treatment groups was as followed:-
• The fresh water without the addition of betaine to the concentrate mixture.
• The fresh water with 2500 mg betaine/kg concentrate mixture.
• 1.5% saline water without addition of betaine to the concentrate mixture.
• 1.5% saline water with 2500 mg betaine/kg concentrates mixture.
The obtained results could be summarized as follow:-
• Saline water significantly (P<0.01) increased the water consumption compared with the fresh water group, but betaine did not change it.
• Saline water significantly (P<0.01) decreased the consumption of dry matter (through the whole period), roughage (through the whole period) and concentrate (through the second, third and fifth months). However, betaine significantly (P<0.01) increased the dry matter consumption in the second month and roughage consumption in the second and third month compared with 0 mg betaine group but did not affect the concentrate consumption.
• Drinking saline water significantly (P<0.01) decreased the final body weight and the average daily gain by 22.64% and 64.03%, respectively compared with the fresh water group. However, betaine increased the final body weight and the average daily gain by 12.93% (P<0.05) and 26.36% (P>0.05), respectively compared with 0% betaine group.
• Saline water did not affect the rectal temperature and respiration rate. In addition, betaine did not affect the respiration rate. However, betaine significantly (P<0.01) increased the rectal temperature only in the morning.
• Saline water significantly decreased the hot carcass weight (P<0.01), empty body weight (P<0.01), pelt weight (P<0.05) compared with the fresh water group. However, saline water did not affect the full and empty weight of rumen and intestine, omental fat, caul fat, head, feet, tail (with or without fat). However, betaine significantly increased the hot carcass weight (P<0.01) and empty body weight (P<0.05) compared with 0 mg betaine group. Moreover, betaine slightly increased the weights of full and empty rumen and intestine, omental fat, caul fat, head, tail (with or without fat), feet and pelt.
• Saline water significantly (P<0.01) decreased the liver weight and the spleen weight compared with the fresh water group. However, saline water did not affect the weights of lungs, heart, bile, kidney (with or without fat), tests and the other sex organs. In contrast, betaine significantly (P<0.05) increased tests weight, bile weight, and liver weight compared with groups fed diets without betaine. However, betaine did not affect the weights of lungs, kidney (with or without fat), spleen and heart.
• Saline water slightly decreased the dressing percentage. However, betaine slightly increased the dressing percentage.
• Saline water decreased significantly the buttock circumference over tail (P<0.05) and the leg circumference under the tail (P<0.01) compared with the fresh water group, but did not affect the other carcass measurements. However, betaine significantly (P<0.01) increased the leg circumference under tail compared with the 0 mg betaine group, but betaine did not affect the other carcass measurements.
• Saline water significantly (P<0.01) decreased the weights of the right side, left side, shoulder, brisket, flank, round, neck, loin and rack compared with the fresh water group. However, betaine significantly (P<0.01) increased the weights of the right side, left side, shoulder, round and loin compared with 0 mg betaine group. In addition, betaine significantly (P<0.05) increased the rack weight but did not affect the brisket, flank, and neck weight.
• Saline water significantly (P<0.05) decreased the weights of the best rib and best rib fat, but did not affect the weights of best rib meat and bone. However, betaine slightly increased the weights of best rib, best rib meat, best rib fat, and best rib bone compared with the 0 mg betaine group, but the difference was not significant.
• Saline water significantly decreased the supraspinatus muscle weight (P<0.01) and the semimembranosus muscle weight (P<0.05), but did not affect the weight of longissimus dorsi muscle. However, betaine significantly (P<0.05) increased supraspinatus muscle weight but did not affect the weights of semimembranosus and longissimus dorsi muscles.
• Saline water significantly (P<0.01) decreased the loin percentage, but did not affect the percentage of the other carcass parts. However, betaine did not affect all the carcass parts percentages.
• The meat water holding capacity and PH were not affected by saline water or betaine. In addition, saline water did not affect the cooking loss of meat. However, betaine significantly increased (P<0.05) the cooking loss of longissimus dorsi muscle but did not affect the cooking loss of semimembranosus muscle.
• Saline water did not affect the blood indices and differential leukocytic count of sheep. In addition, betaine did not significantly change the blood MCV, MCH, MCHC, platelets, WBC, segmented neutrophil, basophils, monocytes and lymphocytes. However, betaine significantly increased (P<0.05) the Hb concentration, RBCs count, and HCT value. In contrast, betaine significantly decreased the numbers of neutrophils (P<0.05), band cell (P<0.01) and eosinophil (P<0.01).
• Saline water did not affect the plasma total protein, globulin, cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, creatinine and AST. However, saline water significantly (P<0.01) decreased the plasma ALT, urea and sodium concentrations. In contrast, saline water significantly (P<0.01) increased the plasma albumin concentration.
• Betaine did not affect the plasma total protein, globulin, creatinine, sodium and glucose. However, betaine significantly (P<0.01) decreased the plasma ALT and AST and plasma urea concentrations. In addition, betaine significantly (P<0.05) decreased the plasma cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations compared with 0 mg betaine group. In contrast, betaine significantly (P<0.01) increased the plasma albumin concentration.
• Liver of sheep revealed normal histological structure in S0B0 group, diffuse hepatic swelling in the S1B0 group, centrilobular hydropic degeneration in S0B1 group and centrilobular degeneration and necrosis in the S1B1 group.
• Kidney of sheep revealed normal histological structure in S0B0 group, focal chronic medullary tubular necrosis in the S1B0 group, increased cytoplasmic basophilia in cells of renal glomeruli and tubules in the S0B1 group and regenerated tubules in renal medulla in the S1B1 group.
• Cardiac muscles of sheep revealed normal histological structure in S0B0 group, fasciculated bundles, and some fibers revealed rhabdomyolysis in the S1B0 group, almost normal compared with control animals in the S0B1 group and almost regenerated except for few muscle fibers were lysed in the S1B1 group.
In conclusion, saline water showed deleterious effects on growing Ossimi lambs performance, blood parameters, carcass characteristics, meat quality, and histopathological pictures. In contrast, dietary betaine supplementation improved the Ossimi lambs performance, blood parameters, carcass characteristics, meat quality and histopathological pictures. In addition, dietary betaine supplementation was effective to ameliorate the harmful effects of drinking saline water.