A comparison of voluntary intake and in vivo digestion in guanacos (Lama guanicoe) and sheep given fresh grass

Abstract

A comparison of voluntary intake and in vivo digestion in guanacos ( Lama guanicoe) and sheep given fresh grass AbstractAn experiment was conducted to compare the voluntary intake and in vivo digestion for guanacos and sheep when offered perennial ryegrass at three different growth stages: vegetative growth (VG), emerging inflorescence (El) and mature inflorescence (MI). Dry-matter (DM) intake ranged from 1-19 to 2-12 kg/day for the guanacos and 0-79 to 1-52 kg/day for the sheep. When expressed on a metabolic live-weight (M 0 ' 75 ) basis, the intake of the guanacos (55-8, 43-1 and 44-1 g DM per kg M 0 ' 75 daily on the VG, El and MI grasses respectively) and the sheep daily respectively) were similar (s.e.d. = 3-70). Apparent digestibilities of all food constituents were also similar. In terms of food choice, the response of the two species to grass stem differed; the guanacos selected (El) or tolerated (MI) this fraction, while the sheep tolerated (El) or avoided (MI) it.

The relationship between forage cell wall content and voluntary food intake in mammalian herbivores

“…6. Relationship between forage neutral detergent fibre (NDF) content and voluntary dry matter intake (DMI) in (a) domestic and wild sheep (Foot & Romberg 1965, Haenlein et al 1966, McIntosh 1966, Leaver et al 1969, Forbes & Tribe 1970, Sutton & Vetter 1971, Jones et al 1972, Hume 1974, Sharma & Rajora 1977, Miles et al 1978, Milne et al 1978, Dellow & Hume 1982, Foose 1982, Varga & Prigge 1982, Aitchison et al 1986, Baker & Hobbs 1987, Reid et al 1988, Gihad et al 1989, Warmington et al 1989, Domingue et al 1991, Lemosquet et al 1996, Vernet et al 1996, Dulphy et al 1997a, Dulphy et al 1997b, 1997c, Fraser & Baker 1998, Burns et al 2005, Pearson et al 2006, Burns et al 2007, Schlecht et al 2007), (b) domestic goats (Jones et al 1972, Sharma & Rajora 1977, Chosniak et al 1984, Gihad et al 1989, Domingue et al 1991, Oosting & Waanders 1993, Sponheimer et al 2002, Coleman et al 2003, Burns et al 2005, Burns et al 2007…”

Applied Digestive Anatomy and Feeding Behavior

“…As the rumen becomes functional, blood glucose will decline to adult concentrations. 55,56 When intake was adjusted relative to metabolic body weight (MBW; kg BW 0.75 ), llama and alpaca intake was not seen to be different but was 26% and 36% lower compared with sheep for improved and unimproved pastures, respectively. Llamas and alpacas also display an extreme hyperglycemic response (blood glucose concentrations >200-300 mg/dL [11.1-16.6 mmol/L]) in response to even minimal stress situations.…”