Effects of feeding different levels of corn steep liquor on the performance of fattening lambs

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the effect of feeding corn steep liquor (CSL) on in vivo digestibility, ruminal pH, ammonia and hydrolytic enzyme activities, blood metabolites, feed intake (FI) and growth performance in fattening lambs. The CSL is a by-product of wet milling process of maize starch industry. The crude protein (CP), rumen-degradable protein (RDP), lactic acid and metabolisable energy contents of this by-product were 420, 324, 200 g/kg dry matter (DM) and 12.6 MJ/kg DM respectively. Twenty-seven male Moghani lambs were assigned randomly into three groups of nine lambs each in a completely randomised design. Three iso-energetic and iso-nitrogenous diets containing different levels (0, 50 or 100 g/kg dry matter) of CSL were offered ad libitum three times a day. Forage to concentrate ratio of the diets was 30:70. With inclusion of CSL in diet, the contents of canola meal, fish meal, wheat bran, corn grain and sugar beet pulp were decreased. The contents of DM, ash-free neutral detergent fibre (NDFom), ether extract, starch, Ca and S were numerically lower, but soluble protein, RDP and non-fibre carbohydrates were greater in the diets containing CSL in comparison with the control diet. The lambs fed with the diets containing CSL had lower [linear (L), p < 0.06] digestibility coefficients of DM and NDFom as compared to those fed with the diet free of CSL. Ruminal ammonia-N concentration increased (L, p < 0.05), but pH decreased (L, p < 0.05) with raising CSL level in diet. Carboxymethyl cellulase and filter paper-degrading activities decreased (L, p < 0.05), while proteases activity increased (L, p < 0.05) as dietary rates of CSL increased. Microcrystalline cellulase and ɑ-amylase activities were similar among the treatments. Within blood metabolites, only urea-N concentration increased (L, p < 0.05) in the lambs receiving CSL as compared to those fed with diet without CSL. Dietary inclusion of CSL resulted in linear decreases (L, p < 0.05) in the intakes of DM, organic matter, CP, NDFom and ash-free acid detergent fibre, and average daily gain. However, the feed conversion ratio was similar among the experimental animals. Overall, feeding CSL up to 100 g/kg diet DM in lamb resulted in reductions of rumen fibrolytic microbial enzyme activities, in vivo digestibility, FI and growth performance, but rumen proteases activity increased.

Possible Utilization of Corn Steep Liquor (CSL) in Rabbits' Diet

“…However, CSL was used as unconventional animal feed source of energy and / or protein for feeding finishing steers (Trenkle, 2002), lambs (Mirza and Mushtaq, 2006;Freitas et al, 2015;Azizi-Shotorkhoft et al, 2016), Labeo rohita fingerlings and carp (Chovatiya et al, 2010), chicken (Rafhan Product Reference Guide, 2010; Ullah et al, 2017), lactating cows (Santos et al, 2012), crossbred calves (Siverson, 2013), Rahmani lambs (El-Emam et al, 2014), ewes (Hafez et al, 2015;Khalifa et al, 2015b) Zaraibi nanny goats (Khalifa et al, 2015a andSaba et al, 2015).…”

Interaction between the sequence of feeding of hay and concentrate, and boiling of barley on feed intake, the activity of hydrolytic enzymes and fermentation in the hindgut of Arabian mares

“…Interestingly, CMCase activity was high in HC‐milled and CH‐boiled treatments as compared to the two other treatments. In ruminants, the activity of fibrolytic enzymes as an indicator of fibre digestion (Azizi‐Shotorkhoft, Sharifi, Mirmohammadi, Baluch‐Gharaei, & Rezaei, ) increased when NDF intake was increased (Hristov, McAllister, & Cheng, ). The high activity of CMCase in group CH‐boiled could be explained by the increase in fibre intake and at the same time the decrease in starch entering to the hindgut.…”

Effect of graded levels of dietary corn steep liquor on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, haematology and histopathology of broilers

“…The pancreatic amylase activity has been reported to enhance threefolds in first 10‐day post‐hatch, whereas trypsin and lipase activity would increase fivefold ‐sixfold in the similar period (Nir, Nitsan, & Mahagna, ). Azizi‐Shotorkhoft, Sharifi, Mirmohammadi, Baluch‐Gharaei, and Rezaei () indicated that the effects of CSL on diet digestibility are controversial and might be mainly affected by the total amount of CSL in the diet and by the composition of the diet (interactions of the diet). So, that might be the reason for the different CP digestibilities in the present study.…”