Effect Of Anaerobic Enzyme Matrix On The Digestibility, Rumen Parameters And Lambs Growth Performance

Abstract

One hundred Iambs (initial body weight 18.4 kg40, 12) were used to evaluate the effect of ZADO@ (an enzyme mixture of cellulase, xylanase, protease and alpha amylase) on feed intake, animal growth performance, apparent digestibility, and rumen concentrations of volatile fatty acids (VFA) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N). Lambs were randomly divided into two groups of 50 animals each. Basal diet with or without 5 g of ZADO@/animal/d was fed. A growth performance trial of 60-days, ending by a digestibility trial of 21 days for 3 animals within each group, was carried out. Including ZADO@ increased feed intake (1.72 vs. I .32 kg/d; average daily gain (0.38 vs. 0.25 kg/d; and feed efficiency (5.0 vs. 5.1 kg DM/kg live weight gain; P<0.05) and decreased calculated net energy required for 1 kg live weight gain (4.8 vs. 5.3 MJ; P<0. 05). Including ZADO@ increased nutrients digestibility coefficients and total digestible nutrients (74.1 vs. 68.3%; P<0.06). Including ZADO@ increased the digestibility of neutral detergent fiber (57.3 vs. 49.2%; P<0.01) and ruminal concentrations of VFA (meq/1) at 3 h from 75 to 91 and at 6 h from 73 to 82 and NH3-N at 3 h after feeding from 159 to 175 mg/l the improved animal performance by inclusion of ZADO@ was as a consequence of the improved digestibility and the increase in VFA. In conclusion, ZADO@ as anaerobic enzyme matrix improved the nutritive value the ration.