ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Horizons in Gut Microbiome Research for Enhancing Livestock ProductivityView all 39 articles
Effects of Letrozole Supplementation on Growth Performance, Blood Indexes, Ruminal Fermentation Parameters, and Microbiome composition of Hu lambs
Provisionally accepted
- Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study aimed to explore the effects of dietary letrozole (LE) supplementation on growth performance, rumen microbiota, fermentation profiles, and blood metabolites in Hu lambs, providing insights into its potential for enhancing animal production. Under the experimental conditions, supplemental feeding of LE did not significantly affect the overall growth performance of lambs. but it did increase plasma testosterone concentration, elevated the relative abundance of Firmicutes in the rumen, reduced the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, and altered the rumen fermentation pattern. This shift occurred by decreasing the acetate-to-propionate ratio, increasing isovaleric acid concentration, and promoting a propionic acid fermentation pattern, thereby improving feed utilization. Among all groups, the optimal supplemental feeding rate was determined to be 0.2 mg/kg BW.
Keywords: growth performance, lamb, Letrozole, Plasma Hormone, Rumen fermentation
Received: 28 Oct 2025; Accepted: 29 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 杨, 李, 刘, 张, 王, Ainiwaer, Lu, Zhao and 杨. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Guodong Zhao
开伦 杨
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.