Diet inclusion of devil fish (Plecostomus spp.) silage and its impacts on ruminal fermentation and growth performance of growing lambs in hot regions of Mexico

• Published in: Tropical animal health and production Vol. 47; no. 5; pp. 861 - 866
• Main Authors: Tejeda-Arroyo, Eduardo, Cipriano-Salazar, Moisés, Camacho-Díaz, Luis Miguel, Salem, Abdelfattah Zeidan Mohamed, Kholif, Ahmed Eid, Elghandour, Mona Mohamed Mohamed Yasseen, DiLorenzo, Nicolas, Cruz-Lagunas, Blas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Ammonia; Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Animals; Animals, Newborn - growth & development; Animals, Newborn - physiology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Body weight; Diet; Feed conversion; Fermentation; Fishes; Hot Temperature; Life Sciences; Male; Mexico; Regular Articles; Rumen - metabolism; Sheep - physiology; Silage; Silage - analysis; Soybeans; Total mixed rations; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; Vitamins; Zoology; Mexico; Devil fish; Rumen fermentation; Silage; Average daily gain
• ISSN: 0049-4747; 1573-7438
• DOI: 10.1007/s11250-015-0800-0

The aim of this study was to evaluate the inclusion of devil fish ( Plecostomus spp.—DF) silage in Criollo × Blackbelly lamb diets in hot region of Guerrero state of Mexico. Rumen fermentation including pH, volatile fatty acids (VFA) and ammonia-N (NH 3 -N) and productive variables including feed intake (FI), average daily gain (ADG), and feed conversion were determined. Twenty lambs with 18 ± 1.2 kg body weight in a completely randomized design were fed a total mixed ration (TMR) of concentrate (based on soybean meal, whole oat hay, ground corn cob, vitamins-minerals supplement) with DF silage at 0 % (DF0), 9 % (DF9), 18 % (DF18), and 27 % (DF27) of the TMR for 75 days. The ruminal pH showed no difference ( P  > 0.05) between treatments: ranging between 6.21 and 6.36. Propionic acid molar proportions showed an irregular pattern between experimental groups, which only differed ( P  < 0.05) between DF9 and DF27, without differences between the other treatments. A greater molar proportion of butyric acid was noted ( P  < 0.05) in DF27 when compared to the other treatments. The ruminal concentration of NH 3 -N showed some insignificant differences ( P  > 0.05) among treatments. The daily FI was increased ( P  < 0.01) in DF27 (1.131 g) when compared with DF0, while DF9 and DF18 showed intermediate consumption with no differences ( P  > 0.05) among them. The ADG showed only difference (cubic effect, P  = 0.02) between DF9 and DF18. The highest feed conversion was observed (cubic effect, P  < 0.01) with DF18, with a value of 4.7 kg of feed to gain 1 kg of body weight. It could be concluded that the inclusion of up to 18 % of DF silage in the TMR of growing lamb diets, in hot regions of Mexico, may improve productive performance and ruminal fermentation kinetics, without any negative effects.