MEDEIROS, E. S.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/5936380172543262; MEDEIROS, Elisama dos Santos.
Résumé:
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of replacing the dry ground corn grain by
silages with the moisties additives, water, cactus pear mucilage and whey on intake, nutrient
digestibility, nitrogen balance, ingestive behavior, animal performance, ruminal parameters
and blood parameters of growing goats. Three experiments were performed. For the experiment
I used 32 crossbred Boer goats, male, not castrated, with an average initial weight of 16.7 ± 5
kg and three months of age, distributed in a randomized block design with 4 treatments and 8
replications. For experiment II 12 crossbred Boer goats were used, male, not castrated with an
average weight of 21.9 ± 1.5 kg and four months of age, distributed in a completely randomized
design with 4 treatments and 3 replications. For experiment III, 4 adult, male, castrated Santa
Inês sheep weighing 30.4 ± 6 kg, fistulated and cannulated in the rumen, distributed in a Latin
square design (4 × 4) were used. The experimental diets consisted of 4 treatments, (1) dry
ground corn (MMS); (2) silage of ground corn grain moistened with water (SMUA); (3) silage
of ground corn grain moistened with cactus pear mucilage (SMUM) and (4) silage of ground
corn grain moistened with whey (SMUS). All silages were included in the replacement of dry
ground corn. Dry matter intake (DM; P= 0.004) was higher for SMUM when compared to
SMUS. Crude protein consumption (CP; P= 0.005) and neutral detergent fiber consumption
(NDF; P= 0.0002) were lower for SMUS in relation to other treatments. There was no
significant difference for DM, CP and NDF digestibilities (P>0.05). The MMS showed the
lowest N balance (P= 0.008) and the highest excreted N-urinary (P= 0.014) than the SMUA,
SMUM and SMUS treatments. There was no significant effect for the observed variables of
ingestive behavior (P>0.05). Diet influences animal performance with higher final body weight
(P=0.033), total weight gain (P=0.004) and average daily gain (P=0.039) for MMS and SMUM.
There was no effect between treatments on the feeding efficiency of goats (P>0.05). It was
observed, higher albumin concentration for SMUM, SMUA and MMS (P= 0.0045) and higher
concentration of chlorine for MMS, SMUM and SMUA (P= 0.0496), there was no significant
difference between treatments (P>0.05) for the other biochemical variables. The lowest
concentration of ammonia nitrogen N-NH3 was observed for SMUS (P=0.0067). It is
recommended the use of moisties additives water and cactus pear mucilage, as a viable
alternative of wetting additives for dry ground corn grain, for feeding of growing goats.