Digestion, Intake and Live Weight Changes of Horro Lambs Fed Vetch (Lathyrus sativus) Haulm Basal Diet Supplemented with Sole Wheat Bran, Acacia albida Leaf Meal or Their Mixture

Abstract

Twenty five yearling male Horro lambs with initial body weights (IBW) of 23.14±2.45 kg (mean±SD) were used to determine effect of supplementation of wheat bran (WB), Acacia albida leaf meal (AA) or their mixture on nutrient digestibility, feed intake and growth performance of yearling Horro lambs fed a basal diet of vetch (Lathyrus sativus) haulm (VH). Animals were blocked into 5 based on IBW and were randomly assigned to treatments. Treatments were ad libitum feeding of VH either without supplement (T1) or with daily supplement of 300 g DM of sole WB (T2), sole AA (T5), or mixture of the two at 2:1 (T3) or 1:2 (T4) ratios of WB:AA. The study had 7 days digestibility and 84 days feeding trial. The VH, WB and AA had crude protein (CP) contents of 6.5, 16.0 and 19.5%, respectively. Supplementation did not impact (P > 0.05) dry matter (DM), neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber digestibility but significant increased (P < 0.05) organic matter and CP digestibility. Intake of the basal diet DM was not affected by supplementation. Intake of total DM and nutrients increased by supplementations. Supplementation also increased average daily gain (ADG), and animals on sole VH diet lost weights of 40.95 g daily while gains of 39.52, 52.86, 42.38 and 28.09 g/day were recorded for T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively. Among the supplemented treatments, T3 showed higher final weight, total gain and ADG (P < 0.05) than T5, but means for other supplemented groups were similar (P > 0.05). Positive and significant (r=0.82, P < 0.05) correlation was observed between ADG and CP digestibility. This relationship might have caused growth performance differences among treatments.