Abstract: The purpose of this experiment was to study the effects of Gymnadenia conopsea polysaccharide (GCP) extract on growth performance, meat quality and antioxidant function house-fed mutton sheep under oxidative stress, so as to provide experimental basis for extensive research and development of Gymnadenia conopsea and its extracts. Twenty 6-month-old healthy male Small-Tailed Han sheep with body weight of (35.0 ±4.0) kg were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group (n=10) and control group(n=10). The whole experiment lasted for 42 d and was divided into 3 periods: the first 15 days were the blank period; the middle 15 days were the treatment period; the last 12 days were the observation period ofter modeling. From the first day of the treatment period, the control group was fed with basal diet, and the experimental group was fed pellet basal diet containing 30 mg·kg^-1 GCP extract. On the 15th day of the treatment period, the sheep in each group were intraperitoneally injected with 10 mg·kg^-1 Diquat solution according to sheep body weight(BW), and then fed for another 12 days. On the 1 st, 15th, 30th, 33rd, 36th, 39th and 42nd morning of the whole experimental period, fasting weight and blood samples were collected before feeding. The serum was separated and the antioxidant indexes (SOD, GSH-Px, T-AOC, MDA) in serum were determined. On the 42nd day of the whole experimental period, 5 sheep randomly selected from each group were slaughtered and meat samples were collected to determine the meat quality. The results showed that the addition of GCP extract to the diet of the sheep could increase the average daily feed intake (P<0.05). When the body was subjected to oxidative stress, the indexes of daily gain and antioxidant enzymes recovered rapidly on experimental group, the mutton drip loss decreased significantly, and the mutton sheer force increased significantly(P<0.05). The results indicated that GCP extract could improve the growth performance of mutton sheep, and alleviated the decline of growth performance and antioxidant performance caused by oxidative stress, and had a certain effect of antioxidant stress.

Key words: Gymnadenia conopsea, oxidative stress, growth performance, meat quality