Tropical kudzu as a protein source in sheep diets

• Published in: Semina. Ciências agrárias : revista cultural e científica da Universidade Estadual de Londrina Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 933 - 946
• Main Authors: Paz, Camila Carvalho da, Rêgo, Aníbal Coutinho do, Faturi, Cristian, Rodrigues, Luiz Fernando De Souza, Rodrigues Filho, José Adérito, Souza, Paulo Henrique De, Conceição, Dayana Mesquita da
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Londrina 26-04-2016
• Subjects: Digestibility; Legume; Pennisetum purpureum; Protein supplementation; Pueraria phaseoloides
• ISSN: 1676-546X; 1679-0359
• DOI: 10.5433/1679-0359.2016v37n2p933

Protein nutrition plays a key role in ruminant performance and represents the largest proportion of costs in animal feed. The present study evaluated whether the roughage portion of Santa Inês sheep diets could be supplemented with different ratios of tropical kudzu as a protein source and assessed the best inclusion level of tropical kudzu based on digestibility, intake, nitrogen balance and feeding behavior. Twenty rams were evaluated during the 20-day experimental period, and they were fed formulated diets with a roughage portion (60%) consisting of Elephant grass and tropical kudzu, the latter supplemented at different concentrations (0, 25, 50 and 75% on a dry matter basis). Forty percent of the concentrate portion consisted primarily of ground corn and soybean meal adjusted to obtain an isoproteic diet. Chemical and bromatological analyses, as well as, analyses to assess intake, digestibility, nitrogen balance and feeding behavior, were conducted. No statistically significant differences were found (P>0.05) for the intake and digestibility of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), hemicellulose (HEMI), non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) or for the feeding behavior (feeding, rumination and idle times in h/day) and nitrogen balance between the diets studied. Thus, tropical kudzu can be considered a feed alternative to supplementation with prime protein foods (in this case, soybean meal) in sheep diets.