Vahid Rezaeipoura - Department of Animal Science, Qaemshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr, Iran.
Taghi Ghoorchi - Department of Animal and Poultry Nutrition, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran
Saeed Hasani - Department of Animal and Poultry Nutrition, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran
Gholam Reza Ghorbani - Department of Animal Science, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran.

This study was conducted at north part of Iran (Golestan province), to investigate the effects of canola meal on growth performance, carcass quality and thyroid hormones in lambs. Twenty four male Atabay lambs were in a completely randomize design (CRD) with 4 treatments and 6 replications. Gaded levels of canola meal (0, 33, 66 and 100 percent) were used instead of cottonseed meal. Lambs were weighed, and feed consumption was recorded for feed efficiency ratio computation in every month and whole of the experimental period. Finally carcass analysis was carried out for every treatment. The canola meal used in this experiment contained 14.75 μmole/g DM aromatic glucosinolates. The results obtained showed that the effects of different levels of canola meal on daily gain during the whole experimental period was not significant (p> 0.01), significant difference (p<0.01) was however recorded in the second month of the study. Feed consumption showed a significant difference between treatments (p<0.01), moreover, increase in canola meal inclusion rate in the diets did not affect the feed efficiency (p> 0.01). Carcass characteristics, except for liver weight, were not statistically different (p> 0.01). Effect of different levels of canola meal on thyroid hormones secretion was not statistically significant (P> 0.01). Therefore, it is recommended that canola meal can be used in the diets of Atabay finishing lamb without any problem.

Canola meal, Lamb, Thyroid