Effects of feeding wood kraft pulp silage containing sweet‐potato shochu distillery by‐product on feed intake, feed digestibility, rumen fermentation, blood components, and growth performance in Japanese Black fattening steers during early period

• Published in: Animal science journal Vol. 93; no. 1; pp. e13772 - n/a
• Main Authors: Maeda, Yuka, Nishimura, Keiko, Kurosu, Kazuhiro, Mizuguchi, Hitoshi, Terada, Fuminori, Kushibiki, Shiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Animal Feed - analysis; Animals; Aspartate Aminotransferases - metabolism; Aspartate transaminase; Body weight; Body weight gain; Diet - veterinary; Digestibility; Digestion; Distilleries; Dry matter; early fattening period; Eating; Feeds; Fermentation; Ipomoea batatas; Japanese Black steer; Kraft pulp; Lipopolysaccharides; Lipopolysaccharides - metabolism; Potatoes; Pulp; Rumen; Rumen - metabolism; rumen fermentation; Shochu; Silage; Solanum tuberosum; sweet‐potato shochu distillery by‐product; Transaminase; Wood; wood kraft pulp; early fattening period; rumen fermentation; wood kraft pulp; Japanese Black steer; sweet-potato shochu distillery by-product
• ISSN: 1344-3941; 1740-0929
• DOI: 10.1111/asj.13772

The effects of long‐term feeding of wood kraft pulp (KP) silage containing sweet‐potato shochu distillery by‐product (SDP) on feed intake, feed digestibility, rumen fermentation, and growth performance of Japanese Black steers were investigated during the early fattening period. Ten Japanese Black steers (9.8 ± 0.6 months of age) were used in this study. Five steers (KP group) were fed KP silage as a replacement for 10% timothy hay (dry matter bases), in contrast to the other five (control group). KP silage consisted of 92.9% KP and 7.1% SDP (dry matter bases). The experiment was conducted for 18 weeks. No significant differences were observed in terms of feed intake, feed digestibility, or daily body weight gain between the groups. In addition, diurnal changes in the rumen pH and ruminal lipopolysaccharide activity did not differ between the groups. However, the plasma concentration of aspartate transaminase in the KP group was slightly lower (P = 0.078) than that in the control group. Thus, our study suggested that feeding KP silage does not reduce feed intake or affect the rumen fermentation or growth performance of Japanese Black fattening steer.