Acta Scientiarum: Animal Sciences (Feb 2015)

<b>Mesquite pod meal in sheep diet: intake, apparent digestibility of nutrients and nitrogen balance

  • Edileusa de Jesus do Santos,
  • Mara Lúcia Albuquerque Pereira,
  • Paulo José Presidio Almeida,
  • Jeruzia Vitória Moreira,
  • Andréia Carolina Santos de Souza,
  • César Augusto Ramos Pereira

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4025/actascianimsci.v37i1.24466
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 37, no. 1
pp. 55 – 59

Abstract

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Eight Santa Ines sheep were assigned to two 4 x 4 Latin squares, to evaluate the effects of replacing elephant grass silage with different levels of mesquite pod meal (MDM) (15, 30 and 45% DM) on intake, apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), total carbohydrates (TC) and non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC) and the nitrogen balance. There was a linear increase (p < 0.05) in the intake of DM, OM, CP, ADF, NDF, NFC and TC according to the addition of MPM to the diet. The digestibility of DM, OM and CP increased (p < 0.05) with the addition of MDM. We observed a positive linear effect (p < 0.05) for the nitrogen intake. The addition of mesquite pod meal up to 45% increased the intake of DM, NDF, ADF, CP, OM, NFC and TC but reduced the digestibility of EE and NDF. MPM at 30 and 45% propitiated a positive nitrogen balance.

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