Behaviour of confined sheep fed with different concentrate sources

Abstract

In this study we examined the effects of different feed concentrates on sheep behaviour. Our hypothesis was that citric pulp would stimulate rumination and be capable of replacing other concentrates traditionally used for feeding in confinement, to reduce the risk of urolithiasis. Ten adult Santa Inês sheep were distributed in a Latin square with five different diets, one control diet with 80% hay and 20% commercial feed and four diets containing 30% coast-cross hay and 70% of the following concentrates: pelleted citrus pulp, citrus pulp meal, cornmeal or wheat bran. After 21d of adaptation to each one of the five diets, the sheep were visually monitored for 24 h at 3 min intervals to record the time spent ruminating, time spent eating and time spent resting; the animals' positions (standing or lying down) were also noted. Daytime was considered to be from 06:00h to 18:00h. The data were evaluated using ANOVA, with Tukey post-hoc test or throughout Two-sample T test for circadian and position assessment. Citrus pulp diets resulted in time spent ruminating similar to the control diet (601, 590 and 669 min, respectively), but greater (P<0.05) than the cornmeal group (421min), which showed that citrus pulp generated effective rumination. The estimated saliva production in the control diet (26L) was greater than in the other groups, and was greater in the citrus pulp groups (24L/d) than cornmeal (21L/d). Feeding with cornmeal led to shorter time spent eating and time spent ruminating than all other diets. The sheep had higher time spent resting at night when fed concentrates (P<0.05). For all diets, about 90% of the time spent ruminating occurred with the animals lying down. Pelleted citrus pulp, citrus pulp meal and to a lesser degree wheat bran, led to adequate time spent ruminating. The use of citrus pulp can act as a preventive management measure to reduce the incidence of urolithiasis in sheep flocks.Keywords: feed behaviour, citric pulp, rumination, urolithiasis, cornmeal Palavras-chave: comportamento alimentar, polpa cítrica, ruminação, urolitíase, fubá de milho RESUMO

Clinical evaluation of unadapted sheep submited to sudden intake of melon with high levels of sugar

“…In field conditions, this amount of melon would be even safer because the animal would ingest the food and later chew it. In this situation, there would be a buffering of the ruminal contents by the saliva (MINERVINO et al, 2014b). This action did not Oliveira, F. L. C. et al occur in the experiment because the fruit was crushed and administered through a ruminal cannula.…”

“…The use of agroindustry byproducts is an alternative to increase profitability. In this context, the use of fruit waste is an option because fruits are produced in large quantities in all regions of Brazil (MINERVINO et al, 2014b). The melon is notable among different fruits because it is produced continuously and in large-scale in the country's northeastern region (which also accounts for more than one-half of Brazil's sheep herds); many fruits do not attain sale classification and are discarded (BARRÊTO JÚNIOR et al, 2008;LIMA et al, 2011;LOUSADA JÚNIOR et al, 2005).…”

“…Administering a concentrate to animals reduces the dietary fiber content, which decreases rumination and salivary buffering. These factors contribute to the increased risk of ruminal lactic acidosis (MINERVINO et al, 2014b).…”

Partial replacement of corn by soybean hulls in high-grain diets for feedlot sheep

“…The inclusion of fiber-rich ingredients in highconcentrate diets may be beneficial to improve rumination of animals according to Minervino et al (2014), who observed that animals fed a diet of 80% forage (Coast-Cross hay) spent 46% of the day in rumination, while animals assigned to diets with 30% forage, using corn grains in the concentrate composition, spent 29% of the day in rumination, and when pelleted citrus pulps were used, the proportion of the day spent in rumination was 42%. However, in the present study, the partial replacement of corn grains by soybean hulls did not promote more rumination to the animals.…”

“…The lack of a roughage source can reduce saliva production and impair rumination and ruminal motility (Minervino et al, 2014). The increase of grain proportion of a diet promotes ruminal fermentation with a predominance of acid pH, especially in the first hours after ingestion.…”