The present study was carried out in the Experimental Farm of Animal
Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Egypt.
The work was carried out from 30th April 2011 to 30th June 2011. A total
number of fourteen sexually mature Ossimi rams aged between 1.5 and 2
years and averaging 46.6 kg body weight were chosen healthy and clinically
free of external and internal parasites. Rams were randomly divided
into two equal groups (7 per each). The first group with no supplementation
was considered as a control (CG); however the second group served
as a treated group (TG). The rams of TG were injected with the combination
of selenium and vitamin E [3 ml IM from Viteselen 15®, Adwia Company,
Egypt]. So each ram from the treated group injected with 5 mg sodium
selenite and 450 mg vitamin E two times/week for 1 month. All rams were
fed on the experimental diet which formulated according to the requirement
for mature ram according to NRC (1985) for sheep. The diet consists
of 25% wheat straw and 75% concentrate mixture as presented in Table 1.
The experimental diet for both group contained 0.1 ppm Se and 15 mg Vit
E/kg. Foods were prepared weekly and dry matter intake (DM1, kg/day)