Effects of dietary supplementation of wheat starch processing wastewater on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and immune function in sheep

Abstract

The objective was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of wheat starch processing wastewater (WSW) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and immune function in sheep. Eighty male Hu sheep were divided randomly into five treatments. Five groups of sheep were fed isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets containing 0 (M1), 0.5% (M2), 1% (M3), 1.5% (M4) and 2% (M5) WSW, on dry matter (DM) basis, respectively. We found that the disappearance for the DM, crude protein (CP), gross energy(GE), ash and organic matter of WSW at 48 h were 62.52%, 64.32%, 65.62%, 55.78%, 62.74%, respectively. The feed:gain (F:G) for M5 was 0.77% and 0.64% less than M1and M3, respectively (P < .05). Serum characteristics (IgA, IgG, IgM and total protein) were not affected by WSW. These results indicated that fed diets containing up to 2% DM of WSW had reduced F:G and increased CP digestibility.

Keywords

• wheat starch wastewater
• growth performance
• digestibility
• immune function
• sheep