Effect of biological treatments on sugarcane bagasse digestibility and performance of Baldi goats

Abstract

The present work was conducted to study the effect of biological treatments on poor quality roughage (bagasse) to improve the performance of small ruminants. Bagasse ensiled or not using one of the following treatments was: (1) untreated control, (2) with additive mixture solution, (3) cellulase enzyme 15%, (4) cellulase enzyme 25%, (5) rumen liquor, and (6) Cellulomonas cellulasea. Two experimental trials were conducted, Experiment (1): In a 5x5 Latin square design with periods of 21 days, goats weighing about 27 kg(± 0.5kg) were fed one of the treated bagasse silage groups plus corn(1,2,3,4,5 and 6). The chemical composition, nutrient intake, digestibility and nitrogen balance were determined. Experiment (2): Twenty male goats (18kg average initial weight) were used in this experiment. Animal performance (ADG, feed intake and feed efficiency) was calculated each week through-out the experimental period (90 days). Results indicated that treatments with rumen liquor or cellulase enzyme (15%) resulted in higher digestibility (p< 0.05) compared with the other treatments. It was concluded that treatment of bagasse silage improved its digestibility, ADG, feed intake and feed efficiency.