No abstract

Akasya pods are seasonally abundant and are good sources of protein and energy and have been considered as an alternative feed source for livestock. This study was conducted to determine the effects of feeding Akasya pod meal (APM) on the growth performances and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. Three hundred straight-run 7-day-old Cobb broiler chicks were randomly allocated to five dietary treatments containing 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.5%, and 5.0% APM following a completely randomized design. Each treatment was replicated 10 times with 10 birds per replicate. The digestibility of nutrients was also evaluated to determine the effect of different levels of APM on the efficiency of nutrient digestion in broilers. Broilers fed APM level at more than 1.0% had lower body weights and body weight gains, but feed intake, feed conversion ratio, livability, and carcass characteristics were not affected by increasing levels of APM. The digestibility of crude protein (CP), crude fiber (CF), nitrogen free extract (NFE), ether extract (EE), and energy were the same in broilers across treatments. Increased income over chick and feed cost (IOFCC) was generated from broilers fed diets with 0.5% APM, but progressively declined as APM level in the diet was increased. In conclusion, APM can be used in broiler diets at inclusion levels up to 1.0% wherein growth performance and carcass characteristics were optimum in broilers and income generated was improved at 0.5% level.

The effect of rain tree pods (RTP) or acacia pods on the growth performance, rumen metabolites, and digestibility of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) in goats was evaluated through feeding trial and in situ methods. Eighteen 7 month-old Philippine native goats with body weight range of 7.86±1.28 kg were divided into three groups consisting of six replicates and randomly assigned to one of treatment diets containing 0%, 50%, and 100% RTP in the concentrate portion of a ration containing 65% roughage and 35% concentrate. Three rumen-cannulated mature goats were used in the in situ studies to determine the dietary effects on rumen fluid pH, total volatile fatty acids (VFA), ammonia, and rumen DM and CP digestibilities. Differences (P values < 0.05) were observed on daily gain, total feed intake, and feed efficiency with diets having >50% RTP generally resulted in lower above-stated performance parameters. Rumen fluid pH of goats decreased after feeding and was lowest in goats fed with 50% RTP. Concentrations of VFA and ammonia were not significantly different. Slowly degradable DM of the test diets were higher in concentrate mixture without RTP. Degradable fractions of CP had highest value on concentrate mixture without RTP while lowest on 100% RTP. However, no differences were observed on potentially digestible fractions and degradability constants of DM and CP. It could be concluded that RTPs can be an alternative ingredient in concentrate mixtures given up to 50% in the mixture as part of a daily ration for goats.

Two experiments, namely the situ nylon bag technique and the in vitro gas production technique, were carried out to determine the correlations between the in situ ruminal degradability and the in vitro gas production of different forages, and to predict the ruminal degradability of the forages using the gas production parameters. Forage samples from Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum), Guinea grass (Panicum maximum), Para grass (Brachiaria mutica), Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala), Rain tree (Samanea saman), and Gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium) were incubated in the rumen of three rumen-cannulated buffaloes using the in situ nylon bag technique for 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h. The six forage samples were also subjected to the in vitro gas production analysis following the modified methods developed by Menke & Steingass (1988), along with 30 other commonly used forages in the Philippines. Both experiments followed a randomized complete block design. Their dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and crude protein (CP) degradation kinetics and effective degradability (ED) as well as the gas production parameters were then estimated. Results revealed that the ED of each nutrient was found to be moderately to strongly correlated with some of the gas production times and estimated gas parameters. The predictor models generated using the gas production parameters for the ED of DM, OM, and NDF were sufficiently strong (R 2 = 0.740, p value= 0.0002; R 2 = 0.659, p value= 0.0009; and R 2 = 0.813, p value < 0.0001, respectively) while that of CP was only moderate (R 2 = 0.500, p value= 0.0055). It was concluded that the relationship between the two techniques is sufficiently strong and therefore the gas production parameters can be used to predict the in situ ruminal nutrient degradability of forages.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of dietary supplementation of Zn proteinate and Se yeast on growth performance and mineral status in local goats.Twenty two (22) doelings weighing 7.86 ± 2.12 kg were grouped into 6 weight classes in a feeding trial to determine the effects of dietary zinc proteinate and selenium yeast on mineral status and growth performance. The Zn-supplemented groups received 200 mg additional Zn daily from chelated Zn proteinate, an insoluble powder containing 15% elemental Zn. Se-supplemented groups received 3 mg Se from Se yeast consisting mainly of selenomethionine (63%). The four (4) dietary treatments were as follows: T1 : 0 mg Zn + 0 mg Se; T2: 0 mg Zn + 3 mg Se; T3 : 200 mg Zn + 0 mg Se. T4: 200 mg Zn/head + 3 mg Se/head. The experiment was conducted in a 2 x 2 factorial design in RCBD. Napier grass used in the trial contained 89.03 ppm Zn, while the mixture of corn-soybean oil meal had Zn content 49.73 ppm. Supplementation of Zn and Se in the diets composed of 60% Napier and 40% soya-corn mix had no effect on dry matter intake, body weight gain, and feed efficiency. Giving 200 mg Zn/head tends to increase (P<0.05) the Zn concentration in the blood of doelings among the levels of Se. Percent digestibility of Zn decreased with Zn supplementation at 200 mg. Percent apparent digestibility of Zn tends to be higher in animals without mineral supplementation. Results indicate that Zn and Se supplementation did not affect growth performance. Zn supplementation increased blood Zn concentration, but did not affect digestibility of Zn.