Abstract

This study evaluates the effect of wheat straw treated by pleurotous eryngii mushroom at different levels on the function of Afshari fattened lambs. It was conducted on 24 male Afshari fattened lambs with a mean weight of 30 kg as a replicated observational study design with four treatment groups and 6 replications. In the experiment ration, the base ration was substituted by 0% treated straw (ration 1), 50% treated straw (ration 2), 75% treated straw (ration 3) and 100% treated straw (ration 4). Study time was considered to be 90 days (7 days for adoption and 84 days for conducting experiments). During fattening period, the studied lambs were weighted once every 15 days and mean daily weight gain, mean daily feed conversion ratio (FCR) were determined. The results of this study revealed that replacing ordinary wheat straw by pleurotous Eryngii mushroom-treated one in the ration of lambs significantly increases the daily dry matter (DM) use in treatment group 3 compared to control group but the difference was not significant in other treatment groups (p<0.05). Wheat straws treated at different levels had a significant effect on mean daily weight gain and FCR (p<0.05). It may be recommended that a portion of lambs ration can be substituted by pleurotous Eryngii mushroom-treated wheat straw without an inverse effect on their function. This, in turn, promotes the productivity of fattening lambs and the production of micronutrient-enriched products.