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Small Ruminant Research 105 (2012) 170– 175

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Small Ruminant Research

jou rna l h omepa g e: www.elsev ier .com/ locate /smal l rumres

ffects of betaine and sulfate supplementation on milknd wool production of Naeini ewes

. Nezamidousta,b,∗, M. Alikhania, G.R. Ghorbania, M.A. Edrisa

Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, IranAran Kesht Company, West Azarbaijan, Maku City, Yollagaldi, Iran

r t i c l e i n f o

rticle history:eceived 8 December 2011eceived in revised form 16 January 2012ccepted 18 January 2012vailable online 24 February 2012

eywords:oolilk

etaineulfatewesupplementation

a b s t r a c t

Twenty lactating Naeini coarse wool ewes (45 ± 3.2 kg BW, approximately 35 months ofage), were studied in a completely randomized design during a three-month experimentalperiod in order to investigate the effect of betaine and sulfate supplementation on milkand wool characteristics. Treatments included, betaine supplementation, sulfate supple-mentation and betaine plus sulfate supplementation, along with control group. Ewes wererandomly distributed in individual pens with five replications for each treatment. Isoni-trogenous and isocaloric diets were twice offered to the ewes on a daily basis accordingto the NRC recommendation. The level of betaine used on the TMR was 5 g kg−1 betaine,and basal diet contained 0.17% DM organic sulfur. Dry matter intake (DMI) was altered bybetaine and sulfate supplementation (P < 0.05). No significant effect of betaine and sulfatesupplement was detected on body weight (P > 0.05). Milk yield and milk fat percentagewere increased by betaine and sulfate supplementation (P < 0.05), whereas percentages ofmilk protein, lactose, ash and SNF were not significant by supplements (P > 0.05). Betaineand sulfate supplementation significantly increased the daily growth rate of the wool, andthe wool yield was compared with that of the control group (P < 0.01). Mean fiber diame-ter was not affected by betaine and sulfate supplementation (P > 0.05). Staple length wasaffected by the type of supplements (P < 0.001). For the staple strength, a higher value wasobserved in the betaine plus sulfate treatment (P < 0.05). Betaine plus sulfate supplementa-tion significantly increased the concentration of wool sulfur (P < 0.01). In contrast, wool waxand wool yellowness significantly decreased by the betaine and sulfate supplementation

(P < 0.05). Although there was an increase in the plasma cysteine concentration, it was nota significant one (P > 0.05). In addition, no effects of betaine and sulfate supplementationwere observed on plasma copper concentration. In conclusion, these data indicated thatbetaine plus sulfate supplementation had positive effects on milk and wool production ofNaeini ewes.

∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Animal Science, College ofgriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran.el.: +98 9149366291.

E-mail addresses: nezamidoost@alumni.iut.ac.ir,.nezamidoust@yahoo.com (M. Nezamidoust).

921-4488/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.oi:10.1016/j.smallrumres.2012.01.010

© 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Sulfur is a constituent of several organic nutrientsrequired by the ruminant and is essential for rumen micro-bial synthesis of certain amino acids (cysteine, cystine and

methionine), vitamins (thiamin and biotin) and enzymes(NRC, 1985). Sulfur amino acid (SAA) supplementation sig-nificantly increases milk and wool production (NRC, 2001;Reis, 1979; Sherlock et al., 2001). Methionine and cysteine

uminant

M. Nezamidoust et al. / Small R

are usually the first limiting amino acids for milk and woolproduction respectively (Hynd and Masters, 2002; NRC,2001). Thomas et al. (1951) demonstrated that the addi-tion of sulfate to the diet can improve weight gains andthe nitrogen and sulfur retention of lambs. When sodiumsulfate was added to dairy cow ration (0.18 and 0.24 DMsulfur) milk yield increased (Bouchard and Conrad, 1973).Inorganic sulfur supplementation stimulates wool growthand improves wool quality in sheep (Qi, 1988). Sheepis able to synthesis cysteine for wool growth from sul-fate supplement (Hale and Garrigus, 1953). Block et al.(1951) using as S labeled sodium sulfate, clearly demon-strated that inorganic sulfur was incorporated into cystineand methionine of rumen microorganism protein, bloodalbumin, protein of milk, and sheep’s wool. The ruminalmicroorganisms reduce sulfate to sulfide and use S−2 forsynthesis S-containing amino acids and ruminal microbesproduce twice as much cysteine as methionine from inor-ganic sulfate (Emery et al., 1957). Betaine is a naturallyoccurring compound with methyl donor properties via S-adenosylmethionine, which was implicated in the sparingeffect of sulfur amino acids (Baker and Czarnecki, 1985).There is an effective availability of dietary betaine as, thebeneficial effect in methionine synthesis in ruminant liver(Reis et al., 1990). The main interest of betaine has beenfocused on the protective effect of sulfur amino acids forwool production (Reis et al., 1990). However, inclusion ofbetaine in dairy cattle diets increased milk yield and milkfat percentage (Peterson et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2010).These studies indicated that betaine, and inorganic sulfurmay be useful supplementation in supplying S-containingamino acids for milk and wool production. Naeini sheepconsists of about 30% of total Iranian sheep population; thisbreed is mostly kept by local pastoralists and on the exten-sive production system in eastern region and kavir markaziof Iran. The Naeini sheep is a dual-purpose (meat and wool)breed; they are fat-tailed, medium-sized (mature weightrange is 45–50 kg) and white-wool breed. Milk yield perlactation about 30–35 kg and annual greasy fleece weightbetween 1.2 and 1.5 kg, properly adapted to the dry andhot climate conditions with low quality pastures. How-ever, aim of this research was to evaluate effects of betaineand inorganic sulfur on milk and wool production in Naeiniewes.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Experimental design

Twenty lactating Naeini coarse wool ewes (45 ± 3.2 kg BW, approx-imately 35 months of age), were studied in a completely randomizeddesign during a three-month experimental period in order to deter-mine the effect of betaine and sulfate supplementation on milk andwool characteristics. Ewes were selected from Animal husbandry farm,Isfahan University of Technology Iran, and the adaption period startedtwo weeks before the experimental period. Ewes were randomly dis-tributed in individual pens with five replications for each treatment.The treatments included, betaine supplementation (0.17% DM sulfur),sulfate supplementation (0.24% DM sulfur) and betaine plus sulfate sup-

plementation (0.24% DM sulfur), along with the control group (0.17%DM sulfur). Isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were offered to the ewestwice on a daily basis according to the recommendations of NRC (NRC,1985). The level of betaine which was used on the TMR was 5 g kg−1

betaine (betafine, biochem company, anhydrous with 96% purity) and

Research 105 (2012) 170– 175 171

sulfate supplement was sodium sulfate. In addition, basal diet contained0.17% DM organic sulfur. The ingredients and chemical composition ofthe diets for each treatment group are presented in Table 1. Ewes wereweighed before feeding in the morning at the start and the end of theperiod, as well as 2-weekly intervals throughout the experimental period.Daily feed intake was monitored on individual ewes for a three-monthperiod.

2.2. Milk measurement and analysis

Milk amount were recorded twice weekly by hand milking. The damswere milked after separating their respective lambs at 6 a.m. in the morn-ing and milked 6 h later to get 6 h milk yield. The 6-h milk yield wasdetermined after intramuscular injection of 2 I.U. of oxytocin (Scanpharm-Denmark® 10 I.U./ml). A second intramuscular injection of 2 I.U. oxytocinwas administered in order to get the residual milk yield. The 6-h milk pro-duction was multiplied by 4 to obtain an estimate of daily milk production(Bencini et al., 1992). Samples of milk were collected twice weekly. Preser-vative (potassium dichromate, Normapur, VW International, Strasbourg,France) was added to each milk sample and samples were then stored at−20 ◦C until analysis. Milk samples were thawed in a water bath (60 ◦C)and the percentages of lipid, protein, lactose, ash and solid non fat (SNF)were measured in duplicate (10-ml aliquots) by using MilkoScan (FossElectric Hillerød, Denmark).

2.3. Wool samples collection and analysis

Wool was clipped from the measured midside patches on each sheep,and dyebands were placed on the wool every four weeks (Masters et al.,1996). Clean wool growth per unit area was determined by clipping thewool from the measured patches of about 100 cm2 on the right and leftmidsides immediately at the beginning of the experiment and again atthe end of the treatment period, by small animal clippers with a finecutting blade. The wool was collected into paper envelopes and wasallowed to reach a constant weight at 65% relative humidity and 20 ◦C.The samples were then weighed, scoured and again allowed to reach theconstant weight. The greasy wool samples were washed with using astandard procedure (Min et al., 1998) Then, the growth rates and yieldof the clean wool were calculated (Sherlock et al., 2001). Wool staplelength (cm) was determined by measuring the length of 10 randomlychosen staples (Qi et al., 1992). Staple strength (N/ktex) was measuredfor 15 conditioned staples per sheep using the Agritest Staple BreakerSystem (Agritest Pty, Sydney, Australia). Mean fiber diameter, medul-lated and kemp fibers were measured on a random sample of fibers byan Optical Fiber Diameter Analyser (Min et al., 1998). The fiber diame-ter was measured at 500× using a projection microscope (Sherlock et al.,2001). About (15 g) greasy wool samples from each ewe were stored inpaper envelopes in a dark room in order to analyze wool colour andsulfur concentration. Wool sulfur concentration was measured with ahigh-accuracy semi-micro method (Myers, 1959) and wool yellowness(G-DIN) was determined using a Datacolour Colorimeter (Goddinger et al.,1994). Wax concentration from greasy wool was measured by extract-ing sequential soxhlet with the solvent system (Negri et al., 1991). Allthe measurements of wool fiber were conditioned at 20 ◦C and 65%RH.

2.4. Feed samples

The chemical composition of feed samples was determined by stan-dard procedures (AOAC, 1990). The protein content of the samples wasdetermined by Kjeldahl’s method using the Tecator nitrogen analyser(Model 1026). And acid detergent fiber was determined according to themethod of Goering and Van Soest (1970). The ash was estimated by ignit-ing the samples at 550 ◦C using Thermolyne 48000. And sulfur contentof feed samples was determined using an open wet digestion method(Pathak et al., 1996).

2.5. Blood samples

Blood samples were taken immediately 2, 4 h after meal and then atapproximately 2-weekly intervals throughout the experimental period.Samples were collected by jugular venipuncture into vacutainer tubescontaining heparin as the anticoagulant and chilled on ice. Plasma was

172 M. Nezamidoust et al. / Small Ruminant Research 105 (2012) 170– 175

Table 1Ingredient and chemical composition of the diets (% on dry matter basis).

Betaine Sulfate Betaine plus sulfate Control

IngredientAlfalfa 53 53 53 53Barley 15 15 15 15Wheat bran 20 20 20 20Corn silage 10.5 10.05 10 10.55Mineral/vitamin mixturea 1.45 1.45 1.45 1.45Sodium sulfate 0.5 0.5Betaine 0.05 0.05

Analyzed chemical compositionME (Mcal/kg) 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25CP 15.1 15.1 15.1 15.1Calcium 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4Phosphorus 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2Acid detergent fiber 25 25 25 25Total nitrogen 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.4Organic S 0.17 0.17 0.17 0.17Sulfate S 0.07 0.07Total ash 8.32 8.32 8.32 8.32

10

, 4000; Cv

occt

2

Aen

3

3

wb1s

TE

N

TE

N

N:S ratio 14

a Contained (ppm or I.U. per kilogram of diet): Na, 70,000; Mg, 19,000; Feitamin D, 100,000 I.U.; vitamin E, 1000 I.U.

btained by centrifugation at 3750 × g and stored at −85 ◦C. Cysteine con-entrations were determined as described by Lee et al. (1995) and plasmaopper concentration was analyzed by atomic absorption spectropho-ometer method (Perkin-Elmer Corp, 1996).

.6. Statistical analyses

The data were analyzed using Anova procedures of the Statisticalnalysis System package (SAS, 2009) on a completely randomly designedxperiment. Differences between the means were tested using Duncan’sew multiple range test.

. Results

.1. Feed intake and body weight

Mean values for Dry matter intake (DMI) and body

eight are shown in Table 2. DMI was altered by dietary

etaine and sulfate supplementation (P < 0.05). Values668, 1683, 1756 and 1651 for betaine, sulfate, betaine plusulfate and control group, respectively. No significant effect

able 2ffect of betaine and sulfate supplementation on ewes dry matter intake and bod

Betaine Sulfate Betain

Dry matter intake (g/day) 1668 1683 1756

Body weight (kg) 43.5 44 44.1

* Significance values of P < 0.05.S denotes P > 0.05.

able 3ffect of betaine and sulfate supplementation on milk characteristics.

Betaine Sulfate Betaine p

Milk yield (kg/day) 1.66 1.64 1.73

Fat (%) 7.25 7.12 7.32

Protein (%) 5.62 5.65 5.68

Lactose (%) 4.9 4.91 4.88

SNF (%) 11.45 11.50 11.51

Ash (%) .9 0.88 .9

* Significance values of P < 0.05.S denotes P > 0.05.

10 14

u, 300; Zn, 3000; Mn, 2000; Co, 100; I, 100; Se, 10; vitamin A, 500,000 I.U.;

of dietary betaine and sulfate supplement was detected onewes body weight (P > 0.05).

3.2. Milk measurements

Mean values for milk yield and milk fat, milk pro-tein, lactose, ash and SNF percentages are presented inTable 3. Milk yield and milk fat percentage were increasedby betaine and sulfate supplementation (P < 0.05), whereaspercentages of milk protein, lactose, ash and SNF were notsignificant (P > 0.05) by supplements (Table 3).

3.3. Wool measurements

Wool growth rate, wool yield, fiber diameter, staple

length, staple strength, wool sulfur concentration, woolyellowness, wool wax and fibers percentage are givenin Table 4. Betaine and sulfate supplementation signifi-cantly increased the daily growth rate of the wool, and the

y weight.

e plus sulfate Control SEM Significance

1651 0.98 *

43.6 0.35 NS

lus sulfate Control SEM Significance

1.60 0.85 *

7.1 0.46 *

5.62 0.11 NS4.89 0.03 NS

11.46 0.09 NS0.89 0.06 NS

M. Nezamidoust et al. / Small Ruminant Research 105 (2012) 170– 175 173

Table 4Effect of betaine and sulfate supplementation on wool characteristics.

Betaine Sulfate Betaine plus sulfate Control SEM Significance

Clean wool yield (%) 59.71 64.66 72.76 55.68 3.58 **

Clean Wool growth (g/100 cm2 day) 0.045 0.051 0.059 0.041 0.013 **

Mean fiber diameter (�m) 26.25 26.42 26.51 26.11 0.45 NSStaple length (cm) 3.66 3.87 4.4 3.65 0.91 ***

Staple strength (N/ktex) 61 64 69 61 2.84 *

Wool wax (%) 7.8 6.9 6.1 7.9 0.86 *

Wool sulfur conc. (%) 2.03 2.22 2.54 1.98 0.59 **

Wool yellowness 44.16 42.24 40.13 45.8 2.12 *

Non medullated fiber (%) 92.42 92.38 92.39 92.4 0.15 NSMedullated fiber (%) 5.30 5.32 5.35 5.33 0.32 NSKemp fiber (%) 2.28 2.30 2.26 2.27 0.26 NS

*** Significance values of P < 0.001.** Significance values of P < 0.01.* Significance values of P < 0.05.

NS denotes P > 0.05.

Table 5Effect of betaine and sulfate supplementation on ewes plasma cysteine and copper concentration.

Betaine Sulfate Betaine plus sulfate Control SEM Significance

Plasma cysteine concentration (�m/l) 19.8 20.2 20.8 19.5 1.63 NS

Plasma copper concentration (mg/dl) 24.6 25.1

NS denotes P > 0.05.

wool yield was compared with that of the control group(P < 0.01). Mean fiber diameter was not affected by betaineand sulfate supplementation (P > 0.05). Staple length wasaffected by the type of supplements (P < 0.001). For the sta-ple strength, a higher value was observed in the betaineplus sulfate treatment (P < 0.05). Betaine plus sulfate sup-plementation significantly increased the concentration ofwool sulfur (P < 0.01). In contrast, wool wax and wool yel-lowness significantly decreased by the betaine and sulfatesupplementation (P < 0.05).

3.4. Plasma cysteine and copper

Mean values for plasma cysteine and copper con-centration are presented in Table 5. Betaine and sulfatesupplementations increased plasma cysteine concentra-tion. Although there was an increase in the plasma cysteineconcentration, it was not a significant one (P > 0.05) plasmacopper concentration was not affected by betaine and sul-fate supplementation (P > 0.05).

4. Discussion

Dry matter intake (DMI) was increased by dietary sup-plements. This result is similar with the data from otherauthors (Peterson et al., 2010; Saini et al., 2008) whoreported that dry matter intake was significant by dietarybetaine and sulfur supplementation. However, no signifi-cant effect of dietary betaine was detected on body weight.In other studies, body weight was not affected by sulfurcontent of the diet and betaine supplementation (Petersonet al., 2010; Qi et al., 1992). Betaine and sulfate supple-

mentation significantly increased Milk yield and milk fatpercentage. Wang et al. (2010) indicated that addition ofbetaine to diets increased milk yield, fat-corrected milkyield and milk fat percentage, whereas the proportion of

24.8 25 0.8 NS

milk protein and lactose not affected. On the other hand,Peterson et al. (2010) noted that when betaine was added todairy cow diets, milk yield was increased but no significantdifferences were observed on milk fat, lactose and SNF. Ithas been shown that sulfur supplementation increase milkyield (Bouchard and Conrad, 1973).

Both betaine and sulfate supplementations wereaffected the daily wool growth rate and wool yield com-pared with those of the control group (Table 2). Betaine plussulfate supplementation significantly increased (P < 0.01)the daily wool growth rate (g/100 cm2 day). Clean woolyields were increased (P < 0.01) by betaine, sulfate andbetaine plus sulfate versus the control group. Althoughbetaine and sulfate supplement increased the wool growthrate and yield, a greater response was observed in thebetaine plus sulfate treatment. Betaine, sulfate and betaineplus sulfate supplement produced 4, 9, and 17% more wool,respectively, compared with the ewes not receiving thesupplement. These values agreed with the data obtainedby other authors (Thomas et al., 1951; Hale and Garrigus,1953) who found that adding sulfate supplement to thebasal diet of sheep increased the rate of wool growth. Also,Hale and Garrigus (1953) showed that the sheep synthe-sis cysteine from sulfate supplement and sodium sulfateincrease the wool growth rate. Qi (1988) stated that thesheep supplemented with sodium sulfate up to 25% ofdietary sulfur (DM basis) produced 17% more wool than theunsupplemented sheep. However, Johnson (1971) reportedthat, in lamb, the digestibility of sulfur from sodium sulfateand the retentions of sulfur were 70%, and 56%, respec-tively. These data indicated that the response of sodiumsulfate to the wool growth in sheep was considerable.

The information available on the role of betaine in woolproduction is scarce. Betaine as one of the main dietarysources of labile methyl group in animal diets is consideredan essential component for the regulation of methylation

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74 M. Nezamidoust et al. / Small R

rocesses. Betaine is able to replace methionine as a methylonor and supports other physiologically important bodyrocesses (Eklund et al., 2005). However, the infusion ofomocysteine plus betaine into the abomasum of the sheep

ncreased wool yield, staple length and fiber diameter (Reist al., 1990). In this study, betaine plus sulfate supplementignificantly increased the wool staple length (P < 0.001).he ewes which feed on betaine plus sulfate supplementad higher response which was in agreement with the find-

ngs of other researches (Thomas et al., 1951; Qi, 1988;eis et al., 1990) who reported that sulfate supplement andetaine treatment increase wool staple length.

The weight of wool growth by the sheep in a giveneriod of time is therefore determined by the rate of elon-ation of individual fibers and fiber diameter. So, increasen the elongation of staple increase the fleece weight of

ool. Fiber diameter increased in the ewes feeding onhe supplementation compared with the control group.lthough betaine and sulfate supplement increased fiberiameter, it was not significant (P > 0.05) This was consis-ent with the results reported by Reis et al. (1990) thathowed the infusion of homocysteine plus betaine in sheepncreased wool diameter, which was not significant, Innother, research (Qi et al., 1992) found that mohair diame-er was not affected by sulfate supplementation. Hynd and

asters (2002) indicated that fiber length may increaseore than fiber diameter as wool growth increased by

utritional manipulation. Moreover, mean staple strengthN/ktex) in betaine plus sulfate treatment was significantP < 0.05). These findings were similar to the ones reportedy Qi et al. (1992).

Staple strength is measured as the force (N) required forreaking the staple of wool corrected for the linear densityf the staple (kilotex). Nutrient supply has major effects onber strength. Provision of adequate sulfur amino acid toool follicles affects the strength of wool fibers. Probably,

n the present research, betaine plus sulfate supplementncreased sulfur amino acids for wool follicles. Betaine andulfate supplementation significantly decreased wool waxompared with the control group (P < 0.05). Both wax anduint content of wool are influenced by nutrition. How-ver, there is evidence indicating that an enhanced supplyf sulfur amino acids increases the yield of wool fibernd decreases wax content of wool (Masters et al., 1996;herlock et al., 2001) which is in agreement with the resultf this study. This indicates that betaine and sulfate sup-lements have positive effects on wax reduction in Naeiniwes. Betaine and sulfate significantly increased wool sul-ur concentration (P < 0.01) and a higher value was obtainedor betaine plus sulfate treatment (Table 3). These valuesere in agreement with the data from Thomas et al. (1951)hich showed that adding inorganic sulfur to the lamb diet

ncreased wool sulfur concentration. The sheep feeding onetaine plus sulfate supplement produced 0.56% more sul-ur and decreased wool wax by 1.8% compared with theontrol group. Furthermore, betaine plus sulfate supple-ent significantly decreased wool yellowness (P < 0.05).

Clean wool contains a predominant amount of protein,

ith very high cysteine content (10%). Wool growth isimited by the supply of cysteine to wool follicle in mostlasses of sheep (Hynd and Masters, 2002). Sherlock et al.

Research 105 (2012) 170– 175

(2001) reported that cysteine supplementation increasedwool sulfur concentration in Romney sheep; both the rateof wool growth and its sulfur content are influenced bythe availability of sulfur-containing amino acid. When sup-plements of cysteine or methionine are infused into theabomasum of sheep, both wool production and sulfur con-tent of the wool increase (Reis, 1979).

Wool colour, especially yellowness, is influenced by thephoto-oxidation of aromatic AA (Goddinger et al., 1994),bacterial stain, high temperature, humidity, fleece archi-tecture and the propensity of wool to yellowness (Hyndand Masters, 2002). However, Min et al. (1998) reporteda trend towards reduced yellowness when the sulfur con-tent of wools was increased. In addition, Crook et al. (2000)showed that either the type or amount of protein in thediet changed wool colour. Fiber percentage (non medul-lated fiber, medullated fiber, kemp fiber) was not affectedby the supplementation of betaine and sulfate (P > 0.05).Qi et al. (1992) found that sulfate supplementation did notalter med and kemp fiber of mohair, which was in agree-ment with the present results.

Plasma cysteine concentration was not significantly dif-ferent between the treatments (P > 0.05) whilst plasmacysteine concentration was greater for the betaine plussulfate treatment (Table 4). Qi et al. (1992) reported thatplasma sulfate sulfur increased by the sulfate supplementa-tion. In addition, the infusion of betaine into the duodenumof calves increased plasma cysteine and methionine con-centration (Puchala et al., 1998). However, in this research,ewes were in the lactation period. Oddy (1985) reportedthat, in the merino sheep, concentration of total plasmacysteine reduced during lactation. The effects of lactationwere partially due to the competition between tissues foressential nutrients; however, hormonal factors may alsobe involved. Plasma copper concentration was not affectedby betaine and sulfate supplementation (Table 4). In thepresent study 0.17 and 0.24 DM sulfur have not negativeeffect of ewes performance because higher level of sulfurin diet induce signs of sulfur toxicosis and sulfur formsinsoluble complexes with copper and molybdenum anddecreases their utilization (NRC, 1985).

However, it is economically more interesting to reducethe dietary supply of choline and methionine by addingbetaine to the diet, as a more efficient methyl group donor,in order to meet the animal’s requirement for methylgroups. In addition sulfate supplement can supply woolgrowth cysteine requirement. Further studies are neces-sary for understanding the mechanism of betaine andsulfate supplement on the qualitative and quantitativecharacteristics of milk and wool.

5. Conclusions

Dry matter intake was altered by betaine and sulfatesupplementation. No significant effect of betaine and sul-fate supplement was detected on ewes body weight. Milkyield and milk fat percentage were increased by betaine

and sulfate supplementation, whereas percentages of milkprotein, lactose, ash and SNF were not significant by supple-ments. Betaine and sulfate supplementation significantlyincreased daily wool growth rate, wool yield, staple length

uminant

M. Nezamidoust et al. / Small R

and staple strength compared with the control group. Meanfiber diameter was not affected by betaine and sulfatesupplementation. Betaine plus sulfate supplement signif-icantly increased wool sulfur concentration; whilst woolwax and wool yellowness significantly decreased with thebetaine and sulfate supplement. Although there was anincrease in the concentration of plasma cysteine it wasnot a significant one. plasma copper concentration was notaffected by betaine and sulfate supplementation. In conclu-sion, these results indicated the positive effects of betaineplus sulfate supplementation on milk and wool productionof Naeini ewes.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their thanks to Mr. Vafifor his assistance in laboratory analysis and Mr. Bazaz-zadeghan Biochem Company for supplying betaine.

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