The effect of urea and ammonia treatments of rice straw on the voluntary intake, digestibility and nitrogen retention in sheep
1996
Pradhan, R. (Kyushu Tokai Univ., Choyo, Kumamoto (Japan). Faculty of Agriculture) | Tobioka, H. | Tasaki, I.
The effect of urea or ammonia treatment of rice straw on the voluntary intake, digestibility of feed components, energy partition and nitrogen (N) retention of sheep were compared. The pH and ammonia-N concentration of rumen fluid and blood packed cell volume (PCV) were also investigated. The digestibilities of acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) increased by the treatments (P0.05). The dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP) and energy digestibilities of the urea treated (US) and ammonia treated straw (AS) were also increased by the treatments (P0.05). The OM digestibility of untreated straw (NS) was 56.9% and it was increased by 17% and 22% by urea and ammonia treatments, respectively. The CP digestibility was improved more by urea treatment than ammonia treatment. Reflecting the improved digestibility of chemical components of US and AS, the digestible organic matter (DOM), digestible crude protein (DCP) and digestible energy (DE) values were also increased by the urea and ammonia treatments (P0.05). The intakes of DE and metabolizable energy (ME) were tended to be higher in sheep fed AS than the others. Furthermore, the DE and ME values of straw were also improved by both urea and ammonia treatments. The DM and OM intakes were not increased by urea treatment, however, an increase of 47% was observed in ammonia treatment. The DOM intakes of NS, US and AS were 13.8, 15.8 and 24.9 g/kgW(0.75), respectively. The N-retention was higher in sheep given the US and AS, however, the significant difference to NS was observed for only the AS. The rumen fluid pH was not affected by the urea and ammonia treatments. The rumen ammonia-N concentration was higher in sheep fed US both before and 4 hours after feeding. The PCV of sheep was not affected by the urea and ammonia treatments
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