Effects of different concentrations of ground oak acorn on growth performance, blood parameters and carcass characteristics of goat kids

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of different levels of ground oak acorn on growth performance, blood parameters and carcass characteristics. Twenty-four goat kids averaging 16.93 ± 1.25 kg initial bodyweight were randomly assigned to four experimental diets in a completely randomised design for 90 days. The experimental diets consisted of (1) 0% oak acorn (control), (2) 8% oak acorn, (3) 17% oak acorn and (4) 25% oak acorn on a DM basis. The goats were slaughtered after 105 days of feeding and carcass characteristics were measured. DM intake increased linearly in small amounts as the level of acorn in the diet increased (P < 0.004). The results showed that average daily gain, water intake and feed conversion ratio were unaffected by levels of ground oak acorn (P > 0.05). There were no significant differences in blood parameters (P > 0.05). Carcass fat depth and abdominal fat weight decreased with increasing ground oak acorn in the diet. Other carcass characteristics were not affected by different levels of ground oak acorn. On the basis of the results of the present study, it may be concluded that ground oak acorn can be used up to 25% in the diets of young goats without any adverse effects on growth performance and carcass characteristics. At this level of acorns, the goats received low concentrations of hydrolysable tannins (11 g/kg DM) in their diet.

Effect of oak (Quercus persica) acorn level on apparent digestibility, ruminal fermentation, nitrogen balance and urinary purine derivatives in pregnant goats

“…There is no report on feeding OA in pregnant goats in the literatures. However, DMI reduction in goats fed OA-contained diets in the present study is inconsistent with other studies who reported that increasing OA level in the diet of growing kids (Froutan et al, 2015) or oak leaves in growing calves' diet (Sharma, Singh, & Sahoo, 2008) increased DMI, but feeding chestnut extract (a source of HT) had no effect on DMI in finishing steers (Krueger et al, 2010). In the present study, reduction of DMI in goats fed OA can be attributed to the decreasing palatability due to bitter or astringent taste (Becker & Makkar, 1999) and decreasing NDF digestibility (Table 3; Allen, 2000).…”

“…Oak forests in the west of Iran comprised an area of approximately 3 million ha that mainly dominated by Quercus persica, Quercus infectoria and Quercus libani (Ghorbani, Fatahi, Tahmasebi, & Hoseinzadeh, ). The acorn production by oak forests in Iran is estimated to be 800,000 tons annually (Froutan, Azizi, Sadeghi, Fatehi, & Lashkari, ). Animal production in this area is almost exclusively based on natural vegetation and forests.…”

“…Local producers reported some adverse effects of feeding high level of OA in pregnant goats and their kids such as abortion and kid's low birthweight and viability. However, there are some experiments regarding the effect of feeding OA on growing kids (Froutan et al, 2015), growing lambs (Al Jassim, Ereifej, Shibli, & Abudabos, 1998) and mature sheep (Aghamohamadi et al, 2014), but there is no report on feeding OA in ruminants during pregnancy period. We hypothesized that feeding high level of OA may have adverse effects on pregnant goat similar to other aforementioned species.…”

Effect of Feeding Oak (quercus Aegilops) Acorns on Nutrient Digestibility, Nitrogen Balance, Ruminal Fluid Characteristics And Some Blood Metabolites in Sheep And Goats

“…There were no effects of experimental diets on the concentrations of serum triglycerides and cholesterol in rams and bucks. There are many biologically active phenolic compounds in oak acorns such as tannins, ellagic and gallic acids, and galloyl and hexahydroxydiphenoil derivatives (Rakic et al, 2006) that play a role in the regulation of blood lipid profile (Froutan et al, 2015).…”

“…The degree of the interaction depends highly on the structures of both of polyphenols and feed proteins (Mueller-Harvey, 2006). Oak products contain considerable levels of secondary metabolites (Froutan et al, 2015;Elahi and Rouzbehan, 2008). concluded that increasing concentration of condensed tannins in sheep diets added advantageous impact on nutritive value by increasing flow of nonammonia nitrogen and retained nitrogen to duodenum, but this accompanied by detrimental influence in reducing apparent digestibility of organic matter, lignin and energy.…”