ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Animal Welfare Assessment: From Biomarkers to Smart Monitoring TechnologiesView all 4 articles
On-farm dietary supplementation of black seed (Nigella sativa) meal in goats: Effects on physiological and metabolomic responses during transportation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, United States
- 2Auburn University, Alabama, United States
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
Black cumin or black seed (Nigella sativa) has many beneficial biological properties, and its processing for oil extraction produces a byproduct known as black seed meal (BSM), which is utilized as an animal feed supplement. An experiment was conducted on a commercial farm to determine the effects of BSM supplementation and long-duration transportation on stress and metabolomic responses and antioxidant and immune capacities in goats. Ninety-six uncastrated male Spanish goats (4 – 5 months old) were randomly divided into two treatment (TRT) groups. Forty-eight goats were fed a concentrate diet containing 15% BSM, and 48 goats were fed the same diet with no BSM (control, C) in separate corrals for 3 weeks with ad libitum water. On the day of the experiment, goats were loaded onto two identical trailers (5 × 2.3 m), with 40 goats/trailer (20 goats/TRT), and were transported for 16 h to simulate a commercial situation. Blood samples were collected at 0 h (15 min after loading), 2 h, 4 h, 10 h, and 16 h of transportation (Time; n = 8 goats/Time/TRT) by jugular venipuncture. The dietary BSM supplementation in goats did not affect stress responses, except for tyramine (P < 0.05), but Time significantly affected (P < 0.05) plasma epinephrine, metanephrine, and normetanephrine. The BSM supplement did not significantly affect the antioxidant and immune status variables. At the metabolome level, 15 amino acids, 4 acylcarnitines, 24 phosphatidylcholines and sphingomyelins, and 13 other metabolites were significantly affected (P < 0.05) by TRT. Acylcarnitine (C2), hexadecenoylcarnitine (C16:1), hydroxybutyrylcarnitine (C4OH), β-hydroxybutyric acid, and isobutyric acid concentrations were higher (P < 0.05) in the BSM goats, indicating energy supply was mainly through lipid metabolism. The BSM group had lower (P < 0.05) concentrations of glucose, 11 of the amino acids, and TCA cycle metabolites compared to the C group. Supplementation of BSM in the meat goat diet prior to extended road transportation may help them use fat as an energy source instead of breaking down protein. However, at a 15% level, there were no significant effects on antioxidant and immune status indicators determined.
Keywords: antioxidant activity, black seed meal, Catecholamines, Metabolomics, stress
Received: 08 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gurrapu, Batchu, Shaik, Terrill and Kannan. 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: Govind Kannan
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.