The Impact of Vitamin E Supplement on Hematological and Productive, Reproductive Performance of Ewes and Lambs: A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis - Abstract
Vitamin E is one of the important lipid-soluble antioxidants which help in the protection of the cellular membranes, boosting immunity and promoting
reproductive and metabolic activities in small ruminants. Hematological stability, productive performance and reproductive efficiency in sheep may be adversely
impacted by oxidative stress in critical physiological periods, including pregnancy, lactation, and breeding. The current research was designed to critically
review and quantitatively integrate the impact of vitamin E supplementation on hematological parameters, productive traits and reproductive performance of
ewes and lambs. The extensive literature search was performed with the help of large scientific databases to determine the controlled experimental studies
which evaluated dietary or injectable vitamin E supplementation, separately or with selenium. The eligible studies were filtered based on the pre-defined
inclusion criteria and data on relevant data was extracted to be used in the meta-analysis. Appropriate statistical models were used to calculate pooled effect
sizes and test the heterogeneity of studies. The findings indicated that the supplementation of vitamin E had a significant effect on the improvement of the most
significant hematological indices, productive performance, and positive effect on reproductive performance, such as the conception rate, lambing performance,
and offspring viability. The variability of the studies was mainly explained by Dose, stage of physiological, supplementation strategy, and breed. In general,
the results validate the hypothesis that vitamin E supplementation can be an effective nutritional intervention to enhance health, productivity and reproductive
efficiency in sheep, especially when the animals are subjected to environmental factors that lead to elevated oxidative stress.