Digestibility, nitrogen metabolism, ingestive behavior and performance of feedlot goats fed high-concentrate diets with palm kernel cake
Introduction
Native to Africa, the oil-palm tree (Elaeis guineenses) is cultivated today in many countries across the globe (Khatun et al., 2017). The main product derived from this crop is the palm oil, which is used mostly industrially for the production of food products, cosmetics and biofuels. The palm oil extraction process generates a by-product known as palm kernel cake (PKC).
Oilseed cakes such as palm oil (Elaeis guineenses Jacq.) are by-products derived from biodiesel production. These represent feed alternatives that can be used to replace ground corn and soybean meal, the most expensive components of ruminant diets (Chia et al., 2009; McGrath et al., 2018). Among the nutritional characteristics of PKC, its crude protein (17%) and energy (7.6 megajoules/kg dry matter) levels stand out with the potential to balance diets, in addition its fiber content (60% neutral detergent fiber) that can maintain rumen health (Allen, 1997; Ribeiro et al., 2018; Saeed et al., 2019).
In animals fed high-starch diets, metabolic disorders caused by high dietary levels of rapidly digested carbohydrates can reduce their production performance (Tao et al., 2014; Dong et al., 2017). In the case of ruminant nutrition, diets must contain sufficient amounts of fiber to maintain ruminal health while allowing for optimal performance (Ribeiro et al., 2018; Saeed et al., 2019). Although research has been done on the inclusion of PKC in diets for feedlot goats (Abubakr et al., 2013; Rahman et al., 2013; Ribeiro et al., 2018), no study has determined the right dietary inclusion level to maximize the performance of this species in this production system.
In view of the nutritional characteristics of PKC (fiber and nutrients), it is hypothesized that its inclusion in high-concentrate diets for feedlot goats may favor intake and promote adequate body metabolism, ultimately improving production performance. In this context, the present study proposes to examine the effects of PKC inclusion in high-concentrate diets for feedlot goats on digestibility, nitrogen metabolism, ingestive behavior and performance.
Section snippets
Experimental site
The experiment took place at the Experimental Farm of the Federal University of Bahia, located in the municipality of São Gonçalo dos Campos - BA, Brazil (12°23’57.51” S and 38°52’44.66” W). All experimental procedures involving animals were approved by the Ethics Committee on Animal Use of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at the Federal University of Bahia (approval no. 36/2018).
Animals, experimental design and diets
Thirty-two non-pregnant, mixed-breed goats with an average age of 1 year and an initial body
Intake and digestibility
Dietary inclusion of PKC induced a quadratic response (P<0.05) from the intake of nutritional fractions. Dry matter intake per kilogram of BW decreased (P<0.001) whereas NDFap intake increased (P<0.001) as the PKC inclusion levels were elevated (Table 3).
The digestibility coefficients of DM (P=0.010) and OM (P=0.006) decreased whereas the digestibility coefficients of CP and NFCap were not affected (P>0.05) by PKC inclusion in the diets. The digestibility of NDFap responded quadratically (P=
Intake and digestibility
The higher DMI (900 g day−1) achieved at the dietary PKC inclusion level around 120 g/kg allowed the goats to increase their ME intake and thus meet their energy requirement without NDF consumption influencing intake. A similar finding was reported by Abubakr et al. (2013), who observed an increase in DMI in g/day when testing the inclusion of the same ingredient in diets with 900 g/kg of concentrate for feedlot goats.
The increased iNDF content obtained with the inclusion of the test ingredient
Conclusion
Based on the productive, nitrogen metabolism and behavioral results of this study, the recommended level of inclusion of palm kernel cake in high-concentrate diets for feedlot goats is up to 107.7 g/kg. Additionally, this inclusion level increases the fiber content of high-concentrate diets and reduces the activity of enzymes in the blood which are indicative of liver damage.
Declaration of Competing Interest
We declare that there is not conflict of interests in this project.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Bahia State Research Support Foundation and the Federal University of Bahia for the financial support.
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