| Abstrakt: |
Introduction: Today, due to the increasing demand for livestock products as well as the difficulty of supplying livestock feedstuff, the use of new by-product sources of agricultural products is taken into consideration by nutritionists. On the other hand, the use of residues and by-products of agricultural industries have found an important role in the ruminant nutrition systems because of their significant amount of nutrients and lower cost. In addition, if these residues are used in livestock feeding, environmental pollution will also be reduced. Therefore, considering the need to identify and introduce new sources of feed, the relatively extensive production of peas in the country and the non-use of its residues and waste in livestock feeding, and since there is no complete information regarding the effect of using pea pod silage in ruminants, this research was conducted with the aim of determining the nutritional value of pea pod silage and its effect on performance, blood parameters and carcass characteristics of fattening lambs. Material and Methods: Pea pods were collected from canning factories in Tehran province and ensiled in nylon bags. After 60 days, the silos were opened and ensiled samples were evaluated for chemical properties as well as pH. Rumen degradability and fermentation characteristics of pea pod silage (PPS) were measured by using a nylon bag technique and an in vitro gas production method, respectively. Rumen degradability of dry matter (DM) was determined by incubation of five g sample in duplicate for 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h in the rumen of fistulated Zandi male sheep. For in vitro gas production technique, 200 mg of PPS was incubated for 96 h at 39° C, and cumulative gas volumes were recorded after 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 36, 48, 72 and 96 h of incubation. To estimate the gas production parameters, an exponential model was fitted for data. In the last stage of the experiment, to investigate the effect of PPS on performance, digestibility of nutrients, blood parameters and carcass characteristics, 24 Zandi male lambs (initial BW, 33.5 ±1.5 kg) were used in a completely randomized design over 75 days. Experimental treatments were: 1) control; (basal diet) 2- pea pod silage (PPS replaced wheat straw and alfalfa in the basal diet). Results and Discussion: The amount of dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, ash, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber of PPS were determined 20, 11.8, 1.8, 8, 62 and 20.2 percent, respectively, and PH was 6.02. The findings of other researchers indicated that the chemical composition of pea residues could be affected by soil type, regional climate, harvesting method and stages, variety type, and processing method. The results obtained from degradability of DM indicated that fraction “a” (rapidly degradable), “b” (slowly degradable) and “c” (constant degradable rate) were estimated 24.7%, 58.3% and 0.05/h, respectively. The potentially rumen degradable was also estimated 82.9%. In vitro gas production parameters (potential gas production, rate of gas production), organic matter digestibility, short-chain fatty acids, net energy for lactation and metabolizable energy values of PPS were 58.6 ml/g of DM, 0.053 ml/h, 94.6%, 1.89 mmol/g of DM, 9.51 and 14.5 MJ/kg of DM, respectively. The use of PPS in the diet of feedlot lambs improved the final weight and daily weight gain (P<0.05), which may be due to the increase in the DM digestibility of the diet containing PPS. Also, feed conversion ratio in the PPS treatment improved somewhat and tended to decrease (P=0.08). The amount of DM digestibility was affected by the treatment (P<0.05), but digestibility of other nutrients was not affected by the experimental treatment. Blood parameters (cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL and LDL) were not affected by the experimental treatments, except for the glucose, which significantly decreased by feeding PPS (P<0.05). The experimental treatments had no significant effect on carcass performance, weight of heart, liver, kidney, testis, tail and fat. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the use of pea pod silage up to 20% in replacement with wheat straw and alfalfa can improve the performance of fattening lambs. Therefore, it can be used as a cost-effective alternative forage in feeding fattening lambs without having adverse effect on their health and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
