Effects of Astragalus on Lactation, Rumen Microbes, and Lamb Growth in Turpan Black Sheep

60 Turpan Black ewes were studied over a 90-day trial to assess the impact of Astragalus and fermented Astragalus supplements. Dietary supplementation significantly increased lamb birth weight by 6.78% and elevated key immunoglobulins and antioxidant enzyme activities. Hao Lu published this dataset under a CC-BY-4.0 license on figshare in 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between feed supplements and milk composition based on lactose content and milk yield data.
• Analyzing shifts in rumen microbial community structure based on reported relative abundances of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes.
• Investigating the correlation between maternal diet and offspring immune parameters based on serum immunoglobulin (IgA, IgG, IgM) concentrations.
• Studying metabolic pathway activation in response to supplements based on reported tryptophan and α-linolenic acid metabolism pathways.

Strengths

• Dataset is derived from a controlled trial with 60 subjects randomly divided into three treatment groups.
• Results include statistically significant findings (p < 0.01) for key metrics like antioxidant capacity and lamb birth weight.
• Analysis spans multiple biological levels: microbial, metabolic, physiological, and performance outcomes.

Limitations

• The dataset is very small at 21.0 KB, suggesting limited raw data or a summary document.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for statistical modeling.

Provenance

Source

Hao Lu via figshare.

Collection Method

Controlled animal feeding trial with a 5-day adaptation and 90-day experimental period.

Time Range

The experimental period lasted 90 days; specific calendar dates are not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-22 06:10:15; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Study subjects were Turpan Black sheep, suggesting a likely origin in the Turpan region of China.