Your browser doesn't support javascript.
loading
Diet Digestibility and Partitioning of Nutrients in Adult Male Alpacas Fed a Blend of Oat Hay and Alfalfa Pellets at Two Levels of Intake.
Chipa Guillen, Paola Katherine; Antezana Julián, Walter Orestes; Rios Rado, Wilfredo Manuel; Moscoso-Muñoz, Juan Elmer; Cabezas-Garcia, Edward H.
Afiliação
  • Chipa Guillen PK; Facultad de Agronomía y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Av. de La Cultura 733, Cusco 921, Peru.
  • Antezana Julián WO; Facultad de Agronomía y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Av. de La Cultura 733, Cusco 921, Peru.
  • Rios Rado WM; Facultad de Agronomía y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Av. de La Cultura 733, Cusco 921, Peru.
  • Moscoso-Muñoz JE; Facultad de Agronomía y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Av. de La Cultura 733, Cusco 921, Peru.
  • Cabezas-Garcia EH; Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Animals (Basel) ; 13(23)2023 Nov 22.
Article em En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38066964
Alpacas are well adapted to consume the poor-quality forages present in the arid conditions of the Andean Altiplano. However, studies focusing on understanding the relationship between diet digestibility and intake are scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of two levels of dry matter intake (DMI) on a metabolic body weight (BW0.75) basis. The effects of a maintenance level of intake and an ad libitum level of intake (40 and 50 g of dry matter (DM) per kg of BW0.75, respectively) on the apparent diet digestibility and partitioning of specific nutrients (energy, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N)) of alpacas that were fed a blend of oat hay and alfalfa pellets (70:30 ratio as a percentage on a fed basis) were evaluated. Five adult intact male alpacas (BW = 62.9 ± 8.09 kg at the beginning of the study) were fed with the experimental diet and trained to be allocated in metabolism crates for 30 days. After the completion of this phase, two separate experiments for each level of intake were carried out, each lasting for twenty-six days (with the final five days taken for samples and raw data collection). In both experiments, the animals responded differently in terms of nutrient supply and changes in BW (-140 and 100 g/d for the maintenance and ad libitum levels of intake, respectively). Oat hay consumption was rather similar in both experiments, which may be explained by a reduced ingredient selectivity at the ad libitum level of intake. Diet digestibility was similar in both experiments, despite the greater fecal output of nutrients with the increased level of diet intake. In line with this, diet metabolizability, calculated as the ratio between metabolizable energy (ME) and gross energy (GE) contents, indicated a similar energy utilization of the diet. The apparent digestibility of the organic matter (OMD) ranged from 655 to 669 g/kg DM. Water consumption at the ad libitum level of intake was 21% higher than the observed mean at the maintenance level of intake. Fecal outputs of dietary energy, C, and N accounted for the largest source of excreted nutrients, regardless of the level of intake. The N retention increased from 0.439 at the maintenance level of intake, to 0.473 g of DM/kg BW0.75 when the alpacas were fed ad libitum.
Palavras-chave

Texto completo: 1 Coleções: 01-internacional Base de dados: MEDLINE Idioma: En Revista: Animals (Basel) Ano de publicação: 2023 Tipo de documento: Article País de afiliação: Peru País de publicação: Suíça

Texto completo: 1 Coleções: 01-internacional Base de dados: MEDLINE Idioma: En Revista: Animals (Basel) Ano de publicação: 2023 Tipo de documento: Article País de afiliação: Peru País de publicação: Suíça