title: Effects of essential oils, yeast culture and malate on rumen fermentation, blood metabolites, growth performance and nutrient digestibility of Baluchi lambs fed high-concentrate diets.
abstract: The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with a mixture of essential oils (MEO), yeast culture (YC) and malate on performance, nutrient digestion, rumen fermentation and blood metabolites of lambs fed high-concentrate growing diets. For this purpose, twenty Baluchi lambs (17.3 ± 0.5 kg body weight and 3 months old) were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design with five lambs per treatment. The treatment groups were as follows: (i) control: basal diet without any additive, (ii) basal diet plus 400 mg/day MEO (thymol, carvacrol, eugenol, limonene and cinnamaldehyde), (iii) basal diet with 4 g/day YC and (iv) basal diet plus 4 g/day malate. No differences between the dietary treatments were observed in dry matter intake, average daily gain or feed conversion ratio (p > 0.05). Compared with control and malate treatment, lambs fed MEO and YC had an improved crude protein digestibility (p < 0.05). Yeast culture significantly increased (p > 0.05) cell wall digestibility compared to the other treatments. No differences were observed between treatments with respect to nitrogen balance or ruminal pH and ammonia concentrations (p > 0.05). No differences were observed between treatments with respect to ruminal total volatile fatty acid concentration and molar proportions of acetate, butyrate and valerate. Molar proportion of propionate was higher (p < 0.05) for YC and malate compared to control and MEO. Plasma glucose concentration was higher (p < 0.05) in lambs fed YC and malate than in lambs fed the control or the MEO diet. Blood concentration of triglycerides significantly decreased when feeding the MEO and YC diets (p < 0.05). It was concluded that YC may be more useful as a feed additive for manipulation of rumen fermentation in lambs fed with high-concentrate diets than MEO and malate, because YC enhanced crude protein and cell wall digestibility, ruminal molar proportion of propionate and plasma glucose concentration.
authors: Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Malekkhahi
authors: A M
authors: AM
authors: Tahmasbi
authors: A A
authors: AA
authors: Naserian
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Danesh Mesgaran
authors: J L
authors: JL
authors: Kleen
authors: A A
authors: AA
authors: Parand
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary; D004063:Digestion; D005285:Fermentation; D008293:Malates / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D009822:Oils, Volatile / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012417:Rumen / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D012756:Sheep / Q000097:blood* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D015003:Yeasts
chemical_list: D008293:Malates; D009822:Oils, Volatile; C030298:malic acid
keywords: digestibility; lamb; malate; mixture essential oils; yeast culture