The present study was carried out at the experimental farm of Ras Sudr station, South Sinai, belonging to DesertResearchCenter. A number of 16 growing male Barki lambs at 6 months old and 18.5±2.55 Kg were used to assess the and blood parameters as fed roughage diet of cultivated Kochia indica for 75 days. The animals were divided at random into two equal groups; one was fed ad lib. manured Kochia indica (MKI) while the second group was fed ad lib. clover hay (CH). The two groups were supplemented with concentrate feed mixture (CFM) at rate of 100% TDN of their maintenance energy requirements.
The main effects of Kochia indica on hemogram showed higher (P<0.01) value of mean corpuscular volume (MCV) compare to the control, while the mean values of hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Ht), erythrocytes count (RBC's) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were lower in lambs fed Kochia indica compared to those fed clover hay. Leukogram picture revealed leukocytosis (P<0.01), the absolute counts of neutrophils and eosinophils were higher (P<0.01) in lambs fed Kochia indica compared to their counterparts.
Mean values of total proteins (TP), albumin (AL), globulin (GL), cholesterol (CHO), creatinine (CRE), total lipids (TL) and plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) increased due to feeding lambs on Kochia indica . Early changes in plasma enzymes reflected mild hepatocyte damage which is further indicated by significant elevation (P<0.01) of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST).In contrast alkalinephosphatase (ALPh) decreased (P<0.01) in lambs fed Kochia indica compared with those fed clover hay.