Pesca e Produção Pecuária

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Effect of Supplementation with Dried Leaves of Acacia albida, Acacia seyal and their Mixture on Feed Intake and Digestibility of Local Sheep Fed Barley Straw as a Basal Diet

Neamn Gebreselassie, Getachew Animut and Mengistu Urge

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplementation of Acacia Albida (AA), Acacia Seyal (AS) and their mixture on feed intake and digestibility of local sheep fed a basal diet of barley straw (BS)”. “Twenty four yearling intact male sheep with initial BW of 16.6 kg ± 2.4 (Mean ± SD)” were blocked in to six based on initial BW and animals within a block were randomly assigned to treatments. Treatments were ad libitum barley straw(BS) and 100 g wheat bran (WB) alone (T1) or supplemented with 200 g of dried leaves of Acacia Albida(AA) (T2), Acacia Seyal(AS) (T3) and a 1:1 mixture of AA:AS (T4). The feeding and digestibility trial “was” conducted for 90 and 7 days, respectively. Dry matter (DM) intake of BS was in the order of T1>T2=T4>T3 (P<0.05). Total DM intake (500, 650, 597 and 636 g/ day (SEM=12.96) for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively) was lowest for T1, highest for T2 and T4 and intermediate for T3 (P<0.05). Total CP intake “were”38, 77, 65 and 71 g/day for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively, and was increased by supplementation (P<0.05). Among the supplemented treatments, T2 had higher (P<0.05) CP intake than T3, while the CP intake of T4 was similar with T2 and T3. Apparent digestibility of DM and CP increased (P<0.05) and that of NDF and ADF was unaffected (P>0.05) by the supplementation. Therefore, result of the current study suggested that 200g AA leaf meal supplementation to barley straw basal diet to be better in feed intake and digestibility.