Evaluation of titanium dioxide as a digestibility marker for cattle.

Intensive livestock grazing can largely deplete the natural fodder resources in semi-arid, subtropical highlands and together with the low nutritional quality of the pasture vegetation limit the growth and production of grazing animals. To evaluate the contribution of homestead feeding of grazing goats to rangeland conservation and animal nutrition, two researcher-managed on-farm trials were conducted in a mountain oasis of Northern Oman. Goats' feed intake on pasture in response to four rations containing different levels of locally available green fodder and concentrate feeds was determined in six male goats each (35 6 10.2 kg body weight (BW)). Total feed intake was estimated using titanium dioxide as external fecal marker as well as the diet organic matter (OM) digestibility derived from fecal crude protein concentration. The nutritional quality of selected fodder plants on pasture was analyzed to determine the animals' nutrient and energy intake during grazing. The pasture vegetation accounted for 0.46 to 0.65 of the goats' total OM intake (87 to 107 g/kg 0.75 BW), underlining the importance of this fodder resource for the husbandry system. However, metabolizable energy (7.2 MJ/kg OM) and phosphorus concentrations (1.4 g/kg OM) in the consumed pasture plants were low. Homestead feeding of nutrient and energy-rich by-products of the national fishery and date palm cultivation to grazing goats increased their daily OM intake ( R 2 5 0.36; P 5 0.005) and covered their requirements for growth and production. While the OM intake on pasture was highest in animals fed a concentrate-based diet ( P 5 0.003), the daily intake of 21 g OM/kg 0.75 BW of cultivated green fodder reduced the animals' feed intake on pasture ( R 2 5 0.44; P 5 0.001). Adjusting homestead supplementation with locally available feedstuffs to the requirements of individual goats and to the nutritional quality of the pasture vegetation improves animal performance and eases the grazing pressure exerted on the natural vegetation. This management strategy therefore appears to be a valuable alternative to intensive livestock feeding in zero-grazing systems and may contribute to sustainable livestock production in ecologically fragile, semi-arid mountain regions.

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adjusting homestead feeding to requirements and nutrient intake of grazing goats on semi-arid, subtropical highland pastures

Dickhoefer

Mahgoub

Schlecht

2011

“…Inert markers must maintain digestive transit at the same speed as other dietary nutrients in the tract and be physiologically inactive, as well as being non-toxic, easily analysed, able to be homogenously mixed into a diet, indigestible and non-absorbed (Jagger et al, 1992;Titgemeyer et al, 2001). Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) has some advantages over the commonly used chromic oxide (Cr 2 O 3 ), with studies showing improvements in reproducibility and homogeneity (Jagger et al, 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) has some advantages over the commonly used chromic oxide (Cr 2 O 3 ), with studies showing improvements in reproducibility and homogeneity (Jagger et al, 1992). TiO 2 is also approved for use as a feed additive by the Food and Drug Administration, unlike Cr 2 O 3 (Titgemeyer et al, 2001). Another commonly used marker is acid-insoluble ash, but it has been suggested that its digestive transit does not accurately reflect that of feed passage (Cheng and Coon, 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An intense orange/yellow colour results from the addition of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) to an acidic titanium (Ti) solution, and the colour intensity can be quantified by UV-spectrometry. This method has been used successfully in several species including poultry (Short et al, 1996), cattle (Titgemeyer et al, 2001) and pigs (Jagger et al, 1992), but some authors reported being unable to achieve reliable results using this process (Myers et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A comparison of two methods for determining titanium dioxide marker content in broiler digestibility studies

Morgan

Scholey

Burton

2014

The use of inert markers in broiler diets eliminates the need to quantitatively evaluate feed intake and excreta output to determine diet digestibility, and enables nutrient uptake at specific points along the gastrointestinal tract to be examined. Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is commonly used for this purpose and measured using a UV-spectrophotometric assay. Two experiments were conducted to observe whether an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrophotometer (ICP-OES) assay is able to replace the UV-spectroscopy assay for rapid analysis of TiO 2 in broiler feed and ileal digesta samples. In the first experiment, TiO 2 was added at 5 g/kg to 19 broiler diets. Ross 308 male broilers (n = 452) fed these diets were involved in a series of digestion studies to determine ileal digesta recovery of TiO 2 . In the second experiment, defined amounts of TiO 2 were added to ileal digesta samples from Ross 308 male broilers (n = 176) and TiO 2 recoveries were determined. The feed and ileal samples from both experiments were analysed by both UV-spectroscopy and ICP-OES, and relatedness of the findings from the two assays was determined. Overall relatedness of the two assays was strong for determination of TiO 2 concentration in both the broiler diets and ileal digesta samples (r = 0.908 and r = 0.884, respectively). Overall recovery of supplemented TiO 2 was 97.62% by the UV-spectroscopy assay and 98.77% by the ICP-OES assay. The ICP-OES assay in this study was as accurate as spectrophotometric determination for the quantification of TiO 2 content. The ICP-OES method can also be used to analyse several elements within one assay, with a single preparation step, and thus the measurement of TiO 2 may be incorporated into the analysis of other minerals. Time and resources dedicated to determining diet digestibility in broilers could be minimised by using the ICP-OES assay to replace the UV-spectroscopy assay when measuring TiO 2 concentration.

“…The marker methods overcome some difficulties that are encountered with the analysis of the ingesta/egesta method: stressful conditions for the animals (depending on the kind of harness and/or the width of stalls) and longer experimental periods. In recent years, indigestible markers have been used in digestibility trials: some markers are naturally occurring substances such as n-alkanes , acid-insoluble ash (AIA) (Miraglia et al, 1999a and1999b;Almeida et al, 2001) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) (Miraglia et al, 1999a and1999b), while other markers are added to diets, such as chromic oxide (Cr 2 O 3 ) in horses (Parkins et al, 1982;Cuddeford and Hughes, 1990) or titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) in cattle (Titgemeyer et al, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison between the 2N and 4N HCl acid-insoluble ash methods for digestibility trials in horses

Bergero

Préfontaine

Miraglia

et al. 2009

The digestibility of horse feeds and rations can be determined using different techniques such as calculations based on the chemical composition, in vivo or in vitro methods. The marker methods overcome difficulties like discomfort for the animals and longer experimental times encountered using the ingesta/egesta method. In field conditions, a natural indigestible marker like acid-insoluble ash (AIA), with no changes in the normal ration, could be a very useful tool for digestibility trials. A group of six standardbred horses was used in a set of seven apparent digestibility trials. The diets were based on a first-cut meadow hay added to three different cereals (barley for trials 1 and 2; oats for trials 3 and 5 and corn for trials 6 and 7), the hay : concentrate ratio being 60 : 40 or 70 : 30 on a dry matter basis. Feedstuffs and faeces were analysed to determine the AIA content, using 2N HCl or 4N HCl technique. No differences about AIA concentration were found between the two methods for means and accuracy in each diet. Digestion coefficients for each diet did not differ with AIA method, even if in some trials interfering factors consistently lowered the overall values. Consequently, the AIA 2N HCl can be considered the easier and cheaper method to state apparent digestibility in field conditions, and a good tool for digestibility trials in horses fed hay-based diets.