No abstract

Twenty eight crossbred Boer goat kids (21.6 ± 3 kg BW) were used in a randomized complete block design to evaluate the effects of increasing levels (0, 10, 20 and 30%, DM basis) of babassu mesocarp flour (BMF) on feeding behavior and physiologic parameters. Goat kids were individually confined and fed an isonitrogenous diet (12.6 ± 0.1 CP) containing 70% concentrate and 30% Tifton hay (DM basis) for 58 d, with 12 d for diet adaptation and 46 d for experimental period. Animals were monitored every 5 min during 24 h, on the 23th and 44th days of the experiment, according to the activities: eating, rumination, idle and other activities. The feed and rumination efficiencies, expressed as g DM/hour were obtained by dividing the average daily intake of DM by the total time spent eating and/or ruminating in 24 h, respectively. The animals’ physiological responses were evaluated at 06:00; 10:00; 14:00 and 18:00 h, over 10 consecutive experimental days, in which the following parameters were measured: rectal temperature (RT), body temperature (BT) and respiratory rate (RR). Orthogonal polynomials for diet responses were determined by linear and quadratic effects. Effects were declared significant at P ≤ 0.05. The levels of BMF did not affect (P ≥ 0.05) the time spent in eating, idle, rumination (averaging 217±27.4, 363±17.2 and 859±30.6 min/d, respectively), feed efficiency of DM (averaging 245±32.3 g DM/h), rumination efficiency of DM and NDF (averaging 138±28.1 and 155±26.6 g/h respectively) and RR (averaging 54±3.9 mov/min). However, the efficiency of feeding NDF, RT and BT increased linearly with BMF (P < 0.05). It is concluded that BMF can be added up to 30% in the diet of goat kids and despite the increase in some of physiological variables, there was no thermal stress, confirmed by the absence of differences in feeding behavior.

The accumulation of subcutaneous adipose deposits occurs in many genotypes of animals adapted to tropical arid conditions. In sheep, good adaptation of fat-tailed sheep breeds, as Rabo Largo, to arid environmental conditions and food shortages can also undergo digestive and metabolic adaptation, including a greater capacity for digestion of poor roughage. Forty lambs (18±3 kg initial BW) were assigned in a randomized completely block design with a 2x2 factorial arrangement of treatments, with 2 breeds – B (Santa Inês- SI and Rabo Largo-RL) and 2 diets – D (low and high energy), resulting in four treatments: SILE, SIHE, RLLE and RLHE. Lambs (20 SI and 20 RL) were individually penned during 43 d and fed 1 of 2 diets with different concentrate: roughage ratio: low energy-LE (with 70% hay and 10.7% CP, DM basis) and high energy-HE (70% concentrate and 12.7% CP, DM basis). At the end of performance period, the intake was recorded and total feces collected for 5 d. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and when a significant effect (P < 0.05) was found, means were compared using Tukey’s method. The G:F ratio had effect only for D (0.12, 0.22, 0.10 and 0.24 for SILE, SIHE, RLLE and RLHE, respectively). There was observed an effect of D and B (P < 0.05) for all variables related to growth and digestibility, with higher means for SI and HE, except for NDF intake (495, 322, 340 and 268 g/d for SILE, SIHE, RLLE and RLHE, respectively) and NDF digestibility (63, 58, 59 and 45% for SILE, SIHE, RLLE and RLHE). It was observed an interaction D x B on CP intake, NDF intake and NDF digestibility. Breed and diets affected the performance and digestibility of lambs. However, RLLE increased the NDF digestibility, but decreased the ADG, suggesting higher fat depots accumulation.