BACKGROUND: The use of additives, such as medicinal plants, may result in improved digestion and fermentation and consequently, animal production. OBJECTIVES: The present experiment was conducted to determine the most appropriate amount of Ziziphora cliniopodiodes plant to be utilized in lamb diet and its effect on digestibility, fermentation, growth performance, blood, and quality of carcass and meat. METHODS: Different amounts of Ziziphora cliniopodiodes (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1 %) were added to diet of lambs. The best diet was selected based on gas production method and fed to male lambs with an average weight of 41 ± 2 kg in a completely randomized design with three treatments and six replications. The selected diets for feeding lambs included: control diet (Ziziphora cliniopodiodes) and control diet supplemented with 0.2 or 0.4 % Ziziphora cliniopodiodes. Feed intake, digestibility of nutrients, fattening performance, blood and rumen fermentation parameters, protozoan population, and certain meat quality indexes were measured. At the end of the experiment, the carcass traits were studied. RESULTS: The obtained results herein revealed that the potential of gas production, partitioning factor, truly degradable organic matter, dry matter intake, apparent digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, blood urea nitrogen, and protozoa population were not affected by the experimental diets. There was a significant difference among the experimental diets for daily weight gain, the total weight gain of lambs, and microbial biomass production. The highest records belonged to the diet containing 0.2 % Ziziphora cliniopodiodes. Antioxidant characteristics, colorimetric indices, and pH of meat were not affected by the applied treatments. CONCLUSIONS: In general, according to livestock experiments, the best amount of Ziziphora cliniopodiodes to be employed was 0.2 %, which improved certain fermentative and performance traits.

Objective: This research aimed to study the multi-level ammoniation on the digestibility of palm press fiber (PPF) through in vitro methods. Materials and Methods: This research was determined using a complete randomized design of three ammoniation treatments on PPF with three replications: (1) untreated PPF (Con), (2) ammo¬nia treatment 4% (A-4), and (3) ammonia multi-levels of 6%, 4%, and 2% (A-Mul). Results: The results showed a significant effect on the chemical composition of feed in the A-Mul treatment compared to Con (p < 0.05) and a non-significant effect when compared to the A-4 treatment. Overall, the content of crude protein, ether extract, and crude fiber in the A-Mul treat¬ment increased. Except in the dry matter (DM), neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber decreased. The results of the in vitro analysis showed an increase in digestibility of DM, Organic matter digestibility, N-NH3, and volatile fatty acids (VFA) in ammoniation treatment. N-NH3 and VFA showed non-significant differences between treatments A-4 and A-Mul (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Multi-level ammoniation has affected the loosening of the fiber fraction bonding in the PPF, thereby changing the value of the chemical composition and the digestibility of PPF. Multi-level ammonia can be used as an alternative to processing high-fiber feed. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2021; 8(2.000): 230-236]

Objectives: The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of dietary energy and protein level growth performances of selected indigenous Ethiopian sheep breeds. Materials and Methods: Fifty intact ram lambs, 25 from each breed with 12 months of age and a mean initial body weight (IBW) of 19.31 ± 1.7 kg, were employed for this experiment. Animals were distributed randomly into five dietary treatments, i.e., minimum Energy and Protein (mEmP), medium energy and protein (MEMP), medium Energy and high Protein (MEHP), high energy and medium protein (HEMP), and high Energy and high Protein (HEHP) diets in randomized complete block design with 2 * 5 factorial arrangements. The minimum, medium, and high energy diets were 2.388, 2.866, and 3.344 Mcal/kg dry matter (DM) with the corresponding 10%, 16%, and 20% crude protein (CP) diets, respectively. The diets were formulated in a total mixed ration from wheat bran (WB), maize grain, peanut cake, and pasture hay feed ingredients. Diet offer was at the rate of 3% of lambs live weight and revised biweekly as per the attained body weight changes. Digestibility trial was conducted for 7 days of actual fecal data collection, followed by 90 days of feeding trial. Results: The animals fed on the MEHP diet had a maximum DM and nutrient intakes (CP and organic matter) and the best final body weight (FBW), total gain, gain rate, average daily gains, and feed conversion efficiency (31.3, 12.9 kg, 41.2%, 143.3 gm, and 23.13, respectively), followed by HEMP, HEHP, MEMP, and mEmP diets. Digestibility of DM and nutrients linearly followed similar trends (p < 0.01). Hararghe sheep was heavier (p < 0.01) by 4.3 and 3.1 kg in its FBW and total gain and more efficient in nutrients utilization (22.57 vs. 18.18) as compared to Afar sheep (AS). Conclusion: It is concluded that MEHP and MEMP are superior and optimum diets for sheep breeds, and Hararghe sheep is carried out better than AS in most growth performance parameters. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2021; 8(2.000): 185-194]

To investigate premium palm kernel cake (PKC) based diet’s effect on amino acid digestibility, this study conducted a feeding trial. Four groups of 150 day-old broiler chickens in every group were given four isocaloric diets using these formulation: Diet 1 - commercial feed for both starter and grower phase Diet 2 - broiler feed that contains 30% PKC for starter phase + commercial grower, Diet 3 - commercial starter + broiler feed that contains 45% PKC for grower phase (and Diet 4 - broiler feed that contains 30% PKC for starter phase + broiler feed that contains 45 % premium PKC for grower phase. During the experiment’s day 31, bird faeces’ samples were collected based on group diets in order to estimate the availability of amino acid as well as the digestibility of amino acids using balance experiment. Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography with photo-diode array detector was used to analyse amino acid. The findings showed no significant difference in digestibility of amino acids with p<0.05 in the feed broiler chickens’ comparison with commercial feed in terms of different levels of PKC based diet. This study shows that by including 30-45% premium PKC in poultry diet, it could contribute as protein source in broiler feed production with suitable supplementation of essential amino acid. Further studies are encouraged to combine the analysis of excreta, ileal digesta and growth performance in order to achieve more concrete findings.