Studies on digestion physiology of herbivorous feral animals, 2: The comparison of intake of total digestible nutrients among diverse sizes of ruminant and monogastric animals
1991
Kozaki, M. (Tottori Univ. (Japan). Faculty of Agriculture) | Oura, R. | Sekine, J.
Digestion trials were carried out to determine the nutrient digestibility of diverse size of captive feral animals and to estimate their energy intakes. The animal species used were the elephant, zebra, giraffe, eland, blackbuck, zebu cattle, Japanese serow, sika deer muntjac and Japanese Black steer. Digestion trials were carried out three times at different season of the year. Organic matter digestibility was about 0.6 for most of animals except for the elephant, blackbuck and muntjac. Crude protein digestibility significantly correlated with the concentration of crude protein in a ration. The digestibility of acid detergent fiber ranged 0.3 to 0.4 for ruminants and less than 0.1 to 0.2 for monogastric animals. There was no seasonal effect on digestion of the animals used, provided the composition of a ration was about the same. Total digestible nutrients were calculated to be about the same on the basis of the metabolic body size. Captive herbivores are inferred to require about 39+-8g of total digestible nutrients per kg (0.75) for their maintenance
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