Dietary Supplementation of Lysophospholipids Affects Feed Digestion in Lambs.

Qin Huo,Wannian Tian,Peihua You,Rongquan Li,Yiyong Li,Shuanghua Shen,Bo Li,Baijun Song,Long Cheng,Xuezhao Sun,Jianping Li,Tingting Wu,Changsheng Li,Chunqing Wang,Yuhua He

doi:10.3390/ani9100805

Abstract

Five experiments were conducted to examine effects of lysophospholipids (LPL) on live weight gain, nutrient digestibility, ruminal fermentation parameters, serum biochemical parameters and rumen bacterial community profile in fattening lambs. Two dietary treatments (pelleted complete feed supplemented without (control diet; CON) or with 0.05% LPL on dry matter basis) were tested in these experiments. Feed and water were provided ad libitum to lambs. The results showed that average daily gain (ADG) tended to increase or was not affected by LPL supplementation. Compared with CON, the supplementation of LPL resulted in an increase in dry matter, crude protein and organic matter digestibilities, and a decrease in neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber digestibilities. Ruminal pH values did not change with LPL supplementation, but the concentrations of ammonia and total short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were increased. The molar proportion of major individual SCFAs and the ratio of acetate to propionate were not affected by LPL supplementation. While the activity of lipase was decreased with LPL supplementation, all other serum biochemical parameters did not change. Rumen bacterial community was altered by LPL supplementation with the relative abundance of fibrolytic bacteria in the total bacterial population, such as Prevotella, decreased. In conclusion, LPL supplementation can alter feed digestion, but may not result in consistent positive responses in animal growth performance.

Highlights

Pelleted complete feed has been increasingly applied to sheep farming in recent years [1,2]
Growth Performance In Exp 1, the initial liveweight was similar for the two treatments (p = 0.826), but after 68 days the final liveweight tended to be higher for the LPL treatment than for the control (p = 0.084; Table 2)
We found that LPL supplementation increased Dry matter (DM) digestibility, which is consistent with the findings of Song et al [21] who supplemented LPL to beef cattle diet at 0.3%–0.5% of dietary DM, but is contrasted with the results obtained from lactating dairy cows where DM digestibility slightly decreased when LPL was supplemented at 0.05−0.075% in the diet [19]

Summary

Introduction

Pelleted complete feed has been increasingly applied to sheep farming in recent years [1,2]. The indoor sheep production system based on pelleted complete feed provides us with more opportunities than the grazing system, as it allows better manipulation of rumen fermentation, as well as increased feed efficiency and animal growth performance. Microbial additives are normally unstable in their quality and in the response of animal performance [7] Antibiotics, such as monesin, have been banned in some countries due to concerns over the formation of antibiotic-resistant microbial mutants [8,9]. This leads animal scientists to keep seeking new feed additives to increase animal production

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Conclusion