Abstract
A digestibility study was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplementing mulberry foliage and urea rice-bran as a source of fermentable energy and protein to 12 sheep fed diets based on urea-treated rice straw (TRS). The three dietary treatments were: T1, TRS with mulberry; T2, TRS with 50% mulberry replaced with rice bran and urea; and T3, TRS with rice bran and urea. The study was arranged in a completely randomized design with four replications for each treatment. The sheep were fed one of the three diets and the supplements were offered at 1.2% of the body weight (BW) and the TRS was provided ad libitum. There were no differences (p>0.05) among the three treatment groups with respect to dry matter (DM) intake (76.8±4.2 g/kg BW0.75) and DM, organic matter (OM), and crude protein (CP) digestibility (55.3±1.22; 69.9±0.85; 46.3±1.65% respectively for DM, OM, and CP). The digestibility of fiber (neutral detergent fiber [NDF] and acid detergent fiber) was significantly lower (p<0.05) for T3 (46.2 and 46.6 respectively) compared to T1 (55.8 and 53.7 respectively) and T2 (54.1 and 52.8 respectively). Nitrogen (N) intake by sheep on diet T3 was significantly (p<0.05) higher than sheep fed diet T1. However, N balance did not differ among the three diets (3.0±0.32 g/d). In contrast, the rumen ammonia (NH3-N) concentrations in sheep fed T2 and T3 were significantly (p<0.05) higher than in sheep fed T1. The NH3-N concentrations for all three diets were above the critical value required for optimum rumen microbial growth and synthesis. Total volatile fatty acid concentrations were highest (p<0.05) in T1 (120.3 mM), whilst the molar proportion of propionic acid was highest in T3 (36.9%). However, the microbial N supply in sheep fed T1 and T3 was similar but was significantly (p<0.05) higher than for sheep fed T2. It was concluded that mulberry foliage is a potential supplement of fermentable energy and protein for sheep fed TRS based diet. The suggested level of supplementation is 1.2% of BW or 32% of the total diet since it resulted in similar effects on the intake of DM, OM, and NDF, digestibility of DM, OM, and CP, N utilization and microbial supply when compared to rice bran and urea supplementation.
Highlights
Crop residues and agricultural by-products are important feeds for ruminants in developing countries as the priority of land is used for food crops instead of fodder production
The non-sisgnificant of the digestibility of ureatreated rice straw (TRS) intake among diet treatments indicating that TRS based diet supplemented with rumen degradable protein (RDP) either from mulberry or urea, and fermentable carbohydrate either from mulberry, molasses or rice bran did not result in reduction of TRS intake
This study indicated that the digestibility of NDF and ADF decreased when mulberry was totally replaced by urea-rice bran mixture at a proportion of about 30% from the total intake (Table 3)
Summary
Crop residues and agricultural by-products are important feeds for ruminants in developing countries as the priority of land is used for food crops instead of fodder production. Mulberry foliage has high CP content and degradability All sheep were fed a basal diet of TRS with and is considered as a high value supplement of fermentable supplements. Feeding mulberry foliage can promote a favorable condition TRS+urea-rice bran mixture. Previous studies have emphasized the feeding of mulberry foliage as a source of protein to animals on low quality roughage such as RS (Huyen et al, 2012) or ammoniated RS (Liu et al, 2001). The utilization of mulberry foliage as a source of both fermentable energy and protein for ruminant is generally limited. Protein in sheep fed TRS based diets through the Digestibility trial measurements of nutrient utilization, volatile fatty acids. The digestibility trial consisted of 14 days of adaptation (VFAs) production and microbial protein yield
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