In situ assessment of ruminal dry matter degradation kinetics and effective rumen degradability of feedstuffs originated from agro-industrial by-products
G. Habib*, M. Ali1,2,
M. Bezabih1 and N. A. Khan1
Department of Animal Nutrition, Agricultural
University Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 25130, Pakistan; 1Animal
Nutrition Group, Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen
University, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands;
2Wageningen UR Livestock Research, P.O. Box 65, 8200 AB
Lelystad, The Netherlands
*Corresponding author:habibnutr@gmail.com
Abstract
In the tropical Asian
countries, information on nutrients availability from various by-products of
agro-food industries remains scarce and even less is known about their
application in the feed evaluation systems. The
objective of this study was to generate renewed data on
in situ rumen dry matter (DM)
degradability of by-products from oilseeds, cereal grains, and animal origin, commonly
fed to animals in tropical Asian countries. The data were used to derive
regression equations to understand the relationships between effective rumen
degradability of DM (EDDM) and the rumen degradation
characteristics of the by-products. Sixty four samples of five oilseed by-products, seven cereal
grain by-products and four animal by-products were used. From each feed, 4
samples (~1 kg each) were collected from dairy
farms (n=1), local markets (n=1) and different agro-industries (n=2). The feeds
were incubated in the rumen for 2, 4, 8, 12, 24 and 48 h, using nylon bag
technique. There was a significant (P<0.01) variation in the rumen degradation
kinetics and EDDM within by-products of oilseeds, cereal grains and
animal origin. Regression analysis showed strong relationships
(R2 values above 0.90) between the EDDM (g/kg DM)
calculated using three rumen passage rates (0.04, 0.06 and 0.08 h-1)
and the washout (W) and rumen undegradable (U)
contents (g/kg DM) of oilseed and cereal grain by-products. The
renewed database is more reliable because all the by-product feeds were
evaluated under uniform experimental conditions and the variation among sources
of these feeds were also covered.