We studied the effect of soybean or flaxseed oil feeding in the diets of lactating Anglo-Nubian goats. A total of 20 goats (33.6 ± 0.6 kg) were divided into four treatments and fed a basal diet of berseem clover and concentrates (40:60 DM basis; control) or the control diet supplemented with either 20 mL/day of flaxseed oil or soybean oil or 10 mL of soybean oil plus 10 mL of flaxseed oil per day for 12 weeks (i.e., 22 to 23 g per kg of DM intake). Oil inclusion decreased ruminal pH (P < 0.05), and acetate but increased (P < 0.05) total volatile fatty acids and molar proportion of propionate and blood glucose (P < 0.01). In addition, increased milk yield and decreased milk-fat contents were evident (P < 0.05) with oil supplementation. Diets containing oil increased (P < 0.05) unsaturated fatty acids (FA), conjugated linoleic acid, and the athrogenicity index of milk fat but decreased saturated FA concentrations. It is concluded that soybean-oil or flaxseed-oil supplementation of goats at 20 mL/day increased feed utilization and milk production.

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This study was carried out to evaluate using palm fronds only or supplemented with fibrolytic enzymes as alternative roughage on the ruminal nutrients digestibility and gas production. Treatments were: clover hay (Trifolium alexandrinum), palm fronds only and palm fronds plus fibrolytic enzymes (enzymes were mixed with palm fronds in rate of 4 g kg-1 of dry matter (DM). The results showed a reduction (p < 0.05) in gas production, ammoniac nitrogen (NH 3-N, DM and organic matter (OM) digestibility in palm fronds compared with clover hay. While supplementing palm fronds with fibrolytic enzymes improved DM and OM digestibility compared with palm fronds only without (p < 0.05) differences with clover hay. Also, supplementing palm fronds with fibrolytic enzymes reduced (p < 0.05) gas production compared with other treatments. It could be concluded that adding fibrolytic enzymes improved the utilization of palm fronds as alternative roughage without negative effect on nutrients digestibility and reduced gas production which improve the environmental aspects of feeding ruminant animals.

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Reducing livestock negative environmental impacts get great interest in last years. So, present study was carried out to determine the effect of adding different levels of mixture of thyme and celery versus salinomycin on ruminal fermentation, gas production, dry, organic matter and fiber degradation. Four experimental treatments were used by in-vitro batch culture technique, as follow: 60% CFM, 40% clover hay (control), control diet + 2.5 gm thyme + 2.5 gm celery kg-1 DM (T1), control diet + 5 gm thyme + 5 gm celery kg-1 DM (T2), control diet + 10 gm thyme + 10 gm celery kg-1 DM (T3), control diet + 0.4 gm Salinomycin kg-1 DM (T4). Ruminal pH value was significantly increased (p < 0.05) with T4 compared with other treatments. While, the T4 recorded the lowest value (p < 0.05) for microbial protein, short chain fatty acids concentrations (SCFA), total gas production, dry matter and organic matter degradability (DMd and OMd) compared with other treatments. Fiber fraction degradability (NDFd and ADFd) appeared no significant variance (p > 0.05) between control and other treatments except for T1 that recorded the lowest value (p < 0.05). It is concluded that mixture of thyme plus celery could be alternate for ionophores in the ruminant diets to enhance ruminal fermentation, reducing gas production without any negative effect on nutrients degradability.

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