Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2020, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (7): 1666-1676.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2020.07.019

• ANIMAL NUTRITION AND FEEDS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Diet with Different NDF Levels on Growth Performance,Nutrient Digestion, Digestive Tract Weight and Rumen Papilla Development of Lambs

JU Sisi, JI Shoukun, DUAN Chunhui, YIN Xuejiao, CAO Wenxin, ZHANG Yingjie*   

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071000, China
  • Received:2019-11-20 Online:2020-07-25 Published:2020-07-22

Abstract: This experiment was conducted to study the effects of diets with different neutral detergent fiber (NDF) levels on growth performance, nutrient digestion,digestive tract weight and rumen papilla development of lambs. Sixty healthy newborn female lambs ((3.23±0.20) kg initial body weight) were selected and randomly divided into 4 groups with 5 replicates each, 3 sheep each. The lambs were offered concentrates at 10 days of age, and NDF levels of concentrates were 12% (12NDF group), 16% (16NDF group), 20% (20NDF group) and 24% (24NDF group),respectively. During the trial period of 60 days, all lambs were breast-fed in the feeding test, and all lambs were not breast-fed in the digestion test. The results showed that:1) The body weight of the lambs increased extremely significantly with the increase of age (P<0.01); No significant difference in daily weight gain at all ages.With the increase of age, the dry matter intake (DMI) of the lambs increased extremely significantly (P<0.01). The DMI of the lambs among each group were not significantly different (P>0.05). 2) The dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) intake and total energy (GE) intake of the 24NDF group were significantly higher than those of the 16NDF and 20NDF groups (P<0.05). The intake of crude protein (CP) of lambs in the 24NDF group was significantly higher than that of the 20NDF group (P<0.05); the intake of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) in the 24NDF group were extremely significantly higher than those of the 20NDF group (P<0.01), the 20NDF group was extremely significantly higher than those of 16NDF and 12NDF groups (P<0.01). The apparent digestibility of DM and OM in the 24NDF group were significantly lower than those of the 12NDF and 16NDF groups (P<0.05),the apparent digestibility of GE in the 24NDF group was significantly lower than that in the 16NDF group (P<0.05).The apparent digestibility of NDF and ADF in 20NDF and 24NDF groups were significantly or extremely significantly higher than those in 12NDF group (P<0.05 or P<0.01).The fecal energy of lambs in 24NDF group was significantly higher than those of 12NDF, 16NDF and 24NDF groups (P<0.05).There was no significant difference in CP apparent digestibility and digestive energy among the experimental groups (P>0.05).3) There was no significant difference in the weight of reticulum, omasum, abomasum,small intestine, jejunum and ileum in the lambs of each experimental group (P>0.05). The total weight of stomach in 12NDF group was signifcantly higher than those of 16NDF and 20NDF groups. The rumen weight of 12NDF group was significantly higher than that of 20NDF group (P<0.05). The proportion of rumen to live weight before slaughter in 12NDF group was significantly higher than those of 16NDF, 20NDF and 24NDF groups(P<0.05). The duodenum weight and the proportion of duodenum in live weight before slaughter in the 12NDF group was significantly higher than that in the 16NDF group (P<0.05). The other indicators were not significantly different(P>0.05). In conclusion, the optimal NDF level of diet for female lambs at the age of 0 to 60 days is 16%-20%.

Key words: lamb, neutral detergent fiber, growth performance, nutrients digestion, digestive tract weight, rumen papilla development

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