title: Replacement levels of elephant grass by moist pineapple by-product silage in diets of Santa Inês crossbred sheep: performance and digestibility.
abstract: The present study evaluated the effect of replacing elephant grass (EG) with moist pineapple by-product silage (PS) on the apparent digestibility, consumption of digestible nutrients and performance of 25 castrated male lambs Santa Ines crossbreds. The lambs had an initial body weight of 20.2 ± 3.5 kg and were housed in individual pens in a completely randomised design with five treatments (replacement of EG by PS at five proportions of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 %) and five replicates during 74 days. There was no significant effect of PS replacement proportions on the intake of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), total carbohydrates (TC), non-fibrous carbohydrates or total digestible nutrients (TDN). The consumption of crude protein (CP) decreased linearly with the inclusion of PS in the diets. The digestibility of DM, OM and TCs as well as levels of TDN increased linearly with the addition of PS. The use of PS in the diets had no significant effect on the digestibility of CP and neutral detergent fibre corrected for ashes and protein (NDFom(n)). These results demonstrated that there was no difference in the performance of animals fed diets with or without PS.
authors.affiliation: UFRA, Belém, Pará, Brazil. darleycutrim@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Darley Oliveira
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Cutrim
authors.forename: Kaliandra Souza
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: José Neuman Miranda
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Neiva
authors.forename: Luis Rennan Sampaio
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mezzomo
authors.forename: Acaína Kiss da Silva
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Elias
authors.forename: Vanessa Jaqueline Veloso
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: da Mata
authors.forename: Rozilda da Conceição
authors.initials: Rda C
authors.lastname: dos Santos
authors.forename: Daiany Iris
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Gomes
mesh_terms: D031230:Ananas / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D004063:Digestion / Q000187:drug effects*; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D031782:Pennisetum / Q000737:chemistry*; D034561:Sheep, Domestic / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D012820:Silage / Q000032:analysis*