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ThesisItem Open Access Energy supplementation on production performance of cows under field condition(Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 2008) Ruby, Augustian; KAU; Mercy, A DA study was conducted to assess the effect of energy supplementation in the form of maize and rumen protected fat in early lactating cows under the field condition. Thirty, early lactating cross bred cows were selected and divided into three groups uniformly with regard to days in milk, the average days in milk being 40 days. The animals were randomly allotted to the dietary treatments T1, T2 and T3. The concentrate mix made in the semi liquid form and paddy straw formed the T1 ration. The animals of T2 and T3 were supplemented with 1 kg ground maize and 100 g of rumen protected fat respectively, over and above the control ration. The animals maintained on the three dietary treatments T1, T2 and T3 showed an average milk production of 15.38, 14.58 and 13.01 kg respectively during the 90 day period of the experiment. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference (P>0.05) in milk yield between the three treatment groups. The average daily DMI and DMI/100 kg body weight remained similar for all the three groups. The TDN intake was up to the requirement in animals maintained on T3 ration while T1 and T2 rations could not meet the requirements of the animals of the respective groups. The DCP intake was optimum from the three rations. The energy supplementation did not affect milk composition such as percentage of total solids, milk fat, solids not fat (SNF) and milk protein, and milk urea nitrogen (MUN). The 4 per cent FCM yield, total yield of milk fat and protein remained unaffected by energy supplementation. Animals in all the three groups showed similar blood parameters such as haemoglobin, plasma glucose, plasma urea nitrogen and plasma Ca and P. The digestibility of EE, DM, NDF and ADF was higher for the T3 ration than that of T1 and T2. The digestibility of crude protein (CP) was higher for T2 than T1 and T3 rations. Animals maintained on T3 ration showed earlier post partum heat. The cost of feed for producing 1 kg milk was higher for the dietary treatments T2 and T3. An overall assessment of the results obtained in the present study showed that energy supplementation in the form of either maize or rumen protected fat could not influence dry matter intake, milk yield and 4 per cent FCM yield. There was no change in the composition of milk and blood parameters studied, among the experimental animals. However, energy supplementation in the form of protected fat could meet the energy requirement of early lactating animals, improved the digestibility of EE, DM, NDF and ADF and positively influenced the first post partum heat.ThesisItem Open Access Phytase supplementation on the availability of different minerals and their interactions in pigs(Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 2009) Shyama, K; KAU; Mercy, A DTwo feeding experiments were conducted using 100 weaned piglets to study the effect of dietary supplementation of calcium, phosphorus and phytase in different levels and their interactions on growth, nutrient digestibility, mineral availability and blood and bone mineral profile. In experiment one, sixty four weaned Large White Yorkshire x Desi piglets (32 castrated male and 32 female) belonging to the Centre for Pig Production and Research, Mannuthy were used as experimental animals. All animals were dewormed before the start of the experiment. The piglets were divided into eight groups as uniformly as possible with regard to age, sex and weight. Piglets of each group were allotted randomly into four pens with two piglets in each pen. Piglets in each replicate were maintained under identical management conditions throughout the experimental period of 88 days. Restricted feeding was followed throughout the experimental period and daily feed intake was recorded. Clean drinking water was provided ad libitum in all the pens throughout the experimental period. The animals were fed with standard grower ration with 18 per cent CP and 3200 kcal of ME/kg of feed up to 50 kg body weight and finisher ration with 16 per cent CP and 3200 kcal of ME /kg of feed from 50 kg body weight. Eight dietary treatments with two levels of calcium (0.6 and 1 per cent) and two levels of phosphorus (0.3 and 0.6 per cent) were used with phytase (750 units /kg) and without phytase in a 2x2x2 factorial completely randomized design. The pigs were weighed at the beginning of the experiment and later on at fortnightly intervals. Blood samples were collected at the beginning and on 85th day of the experiment and a digestibility trial was conducted at the end of the experiment to determine the digestibility of nutrients and percentage availability of minerals of the experimental diets by total collection method. The results of the first experiment indicated that the levels of Ca, P and phytase had no effect on average daily gain, feed efficiency and DM intake among pigs reared under the eight dietary treatments, while there was significant interaction between Ca x P (P<0.05) and Ca x phytase (P<0.01) on DM intake. The level of Ca and P and Ca x P x phytase interactions were significant for DM digestibility which resulted in lower DM digestibility for rations T3, T5 and T7 than that of other rations. Dietary levels of P and interaction between Ca x P (P<0.01) and Ca x phytase (P<0.05) were significant for EE digestibility. Hence rations T7 and T8 had lower (P<0.01) EE digestibility than the rest of the experimental rations. Crude fibre digestibility was affected by phytase and P x phytase interaction. Calcium availability was higher (P<0.01) in all phytase supplemented rations. Significant interactions between dietary Ca x phytase (P<0.01) and dietary P x phytase (P<0.05) were observed for Ca availability. Interactions between dietary levels of Ca x P (P<0.05) and Ca x phytase (P< 0.05) were found significant for availability of Cu and Mn respectively. Data on blood samples collected on 85th day revealed that phytase supplementation had significant effect (P< 0.01) on the plasma Ca levels of the animals fed the eight dietary treatments. The interaction between dietary Ca x P levels was also found significant (P< 0.01) for plasma Ca. Dietary levels of both Ca (P< 0.01) and P and interaction between Ca x P (P< 0.01), Ca x phytase and P x phytase (P<0.01) were found to affect plasma P significantly. In case of plasma Zn dietary Ca was having significant (P< 0.01) effect and the interactions between dietary Ca x P (P<0.01), Ca x phytase (P<0.05) and P x phytase (P<0.01) were also found significant. Dietary Ca, P and phytase levels had significant (P<0.05) effect on the plasma ALP activity. Cost of feed per kg body weight gain of pigs was lowest for ration T1. Ration T1 with low Ca, low P and without phytase gave similar growth and feed efficiency with lowest cost of production compared to the other rations and thus T1 was taken as the control ration for the second experiment. The second feeding experiment was conducted for 114 days using 36 weaned Large White Yorkshire x Desi weaned piglets (18 castrated males and 18 females) belonging to the Centre for Pig Production and Research, Mannuthy and the animals were randomly allotted to the three dietary treatments, T1- Control ration containing 0.6 per cent calcium and 0.3 per cent phosphorus, T2 -Control ration without any mineral supplements and with 750 units of phytase/kg feed and T3 - Control ration without phytase and mineral supplementation. A digestibility experiment was conducted to determine the digestibility of nutrients and availability of minerals. Blood samples were collected before the start of the experiment and on 16th week. Radiological examination of femur and mandibles of the representative animals of three groups at the end of the study were done. All the male animals were slaughtered on attaining slaughter weight of 70 kg and the data on dressing percentage, loin eye area, back fat thickness, weight of internal organs were collected. Photograph of rib bone was taken during slaughter and bone ash percentage, bone calcium and bone phosphorus were estimated. Kidney samples were examined histologically to assess pathological changes, if any, due to the experimental rations. Body weight of pigs belonging to T2 (phytase supplemented ration) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of T3 in fortnights 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9, while the difference between that of T1 and T2 were non significant in all the fortnights. There was no difference in feed efficiency and digestibility of nutrients among pigs reared under the three dietary treatments. The availability of Ca, P and Mn for T2 ration was higher than that of the control ration while the Mg availability was lower for T2 and T3 than that of T1. Zinc availability was lower for T3 than that of T1 ration. Dressing percentage was lower (P<0.01) for T2 and T3 than that of control and loin eye area was lower (P<0.05) for T3 than that of T1 and T2. There was no gross abnormality of femur and mandible on x-ray examination of pigs reared on three experimental rations. Histopathological examinations of kidney samples also were normal for pigs of T1 and T2 and T3. However ricketty beads were seen on ends of ribs on carcass evaluation, in pigs reared under T3. The bone ash content was also lower (P<0.01) for animals fed ration T3 than that of T1 and T2. Thus feeding ration without any mineral supplementation showed deleterious effects on growth, mineral availability and bone ash content, but supplementation of phytase improved utilization of nutrients and minerals than that of T3 during the period of 114 days of the experiment. Feed cost /kg gain of T1 pigs was higher than that of T2 (P< 0.01) and T3 (P< 0.05). But the difference in the cost of production between T2 and T3 were non significant (P>0.05). It can be concluded that phytase supplementation of rations resulted in decreased feed cost / kg gain.ThesisItem Open Access Effect of brewery waste on nutrient digestability of paddy straw based diet in lactating cows(Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, 2009) SenthilKumar, S; KAU; Viswanathan, T VTwo experiments were conducted, one to assess the effect of brewery waste on nutrient digestibility of paddy straw based diet in lactating cows and the other to study the in vitro disappearance, degradability and rumen fermentation characteristics of various experimental feeds in Rumen Simulation Technique (RUSITEC). In animal study, eighteen early lactating cross bred cows within 20 days of lactation were selected and grouped into three as uniform as possible with regard to their age, body weight, parity, previous milk yield and stage of lactation. They were randomly allotted to the three dietary treatments T1, T2 and T3. The control concentrate mixture and paddy straw formed the T1 ration. The animals of T2 and T3 were fed with experimental concentrate mixture containing 25 per cent brewery waste (on DM basis) and paddy straw as roughage. In T2, the brewery waste was fed separately on wet basis, while in T3, the brewery waste to be incorporated in the concentrate mixture was treated with required quantity of paddy straw, three days before feeding. A feeding trial was carried out for a period of 60 days. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in body weight and average daily dry matter intake (DMI) of experimental animals among the treatment groups T1, T2 and T3. The animals maintained on the three dietary treatments T1, T2 and T3 showed an average daily milk production of 8.03, 10.14 and 11.09 kg, respectively during the 60 day period of the experiment. The milk production was significantly increased (P<0.05) from fourth week onwards in brewery waste fed groups (T2 and T3) when compared with control (T1). The cost of feed per kg milk produced was lower in animals maintained on T2 and T3 rations (Rs. 7.89 and 8.37, respectively) than those fed control ration (Rs. 10.40). The brewery waste feeding did not affect milk composition such as percentage of total solids, milk fat, solids not fat (SNF) and milk protein and milk urea nitrogen (MUN). The four per cent FCM yield and total yield of milk fat and protein remained unaffected by brewery waste incorporation. Animals in all the three groups showed similar blood parameters such as haemoglobin, plasma glucose, plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) and plasma calcium and phosphorus. The MUN and PUN concentrations were significantly higher (P<0.05) in T2 at 60th day than that of T1 and T3. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in rumen fermentation parameters, such as ruminal pH, NH3-N and TVFA concentration of the animals fed three experimental diets T1, T2 and T3. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in apparent digestibility of DM, OM, CP, EE, NFE, ADF, cellulose and gross energy among the three treatment rations. Brewery waste fed groups (T2 and T3 ration) recorded significantly higher apparent digestibility of CF and NDF (P<0.05) and hemicellulose (P<0.01) than those fed control diet. An in vitro experiment was conducted to study the disappearance, degradability and rumen fermentation parameters such as pH, total gas production, CO2 production, NH3-N and TVFA and their fractions such as acetate, propionate, isobutyrate, butyrate and valerate concentration of experimental feeds incubated at different incubation periods in RUSITEC. The following experimental feeds were incubated in the RUSITEC, 1) control feed; 2) experimental feed (75%) + fresh brewery waste (25%) (EFFBW); 3) experimental feed (75%) + dried brewery waste (25%) (EFDBW); 4) fresh brewery waste (FBW); 5) dried brewery waste (DBW); 6) paddy straw (PS) and 7) brewery waste incorporated paddy straw (BWIPS). Among the feeds experimented in RUSITEC, disappearance was more in the control feed, EFFBW and EFDBW when compared to other experimental feeds. Similarly, the disappearance was more in BWIPS compared to paddy straw. The in vitro DM, CP, CF, NDF, ADF, hemicellulose and cellulose disappearance rate at all incubation periods were higher for FBW than those for DBW. The control feed, EFFBW and EFDBW had higher ‘a’ and ‘b’ fractions, rate of degradation ‘c’ and in vitro effective degradability of DM and CP than other experimental feeds such as FBW, DBW, PS and BWIPS and paddy straw showed the lowest. The BWIPS showed higher in vitro effective DM and CP degradability compared to paddy straw. The FBW showed higher DM and CP ‘a’ and ‘b’ fractions, rate of degradation ‘c’ and effective degradability than DBW. A low in vitro DM and CP disappearance of 33.24 and 30.75 per cent, respectively were recorded at 72 hours of incubation (effective DM and CP degradability of 30.59 and 28.64 per cent, respectively), whereas the BWIPS had improved in vitro DM and CP disappearance of 42.25 and 38.36 per cent, respectively, at 72 hours of incubation (effective DM and CP degradability of 39.93 and 36.32 per cent, respectively). The data on in vitro rumen fermentation characteristics indicated that during initial incubation periods (2, 6, 12 and 24 hours), the control feed, EFFBW, EFDBW and FBW showed higher in vitro gas production than other experimental feeds, whereas, during later incubation periods (48 and 72 hours), DBW, paddy straw and BWIPS showed higher in vitro gas production than other experimental feeds. Almost similar in vitro CO2 production and pH were recorded at all periods of incubation in seven experimental feeds incubated in RUSITEC. The FBW showed the highest in vitro NH3-N production at all incubation periods, followed by control feed and EFFBW. The paddy straw had the lowest NH3-N production at all incubation periods compared to other experimental feeds. However, the BWIPS showed slightly higher NH3-N production at all incubation periods than paddy straw. The EFFBW and DBW were intermediary NH3-N production at all periods of incubation compared to other experimental feeds in RUSITEC. The TVFA concentration was comparatively higher in control feed, EFFBW and EFDBW at all periods of incubation than the rest of experimental feeds. The FBW had higher TVFA concentration than DBW in later incubation periods (12, 24, 48 and 72 hours). The EFFBW had higher TVFA concentration during initial incubation periods (2, 6 and 12 hours) than DBW, whereas the DBW had higher TVFA concentration during later incubation periods (24, 48 and 72 hours). During initial incubation periods (2, 6, 12 and 24 hours) all the experimental feeds showed higher acetate concentration than later incubation periods (48 and 72 hours). The EFDBW showed the highest acetate, propionate and iso butyrate concentration (349.64, 266.54 and 90.63 mmol/l, respectively) at 24 hours of incubation, compared to other experimental feeds. The paddy straw and BWIPS showed lower acetate and propionate concentration at all incubation periods. From the RUSITEC experiment, the effective CP degradability of paddy straw, control concentrate mixture and experimental concentrate mixture (containing 25 per cent brewery waste) were 28.64, 53.97 and 52.37 per cent, respectively. The average daily RUP intake of the animals of three experimental groups T1, T2 and T3 calculated using the effective degradability values were 0.68, 0.71 and 0.72 kg, respectively and the values are higher than the NRC (2001) recommended requirement of 0.50 kg RUP per day for early lactating cows producing 15 kg of milk. Inclusion of brewery waste at 25 per cent (DM basis) in concentrate mixture in a paddy straw based diet resulted in significantly improved milk production as well as digestibility of crude fibre, NDF and hemicellulose in medium yielding cows in early lactation. The cost of feed per kg milk produced was reduced by 24 per cent by incorporation of brewery waste at 25 per cent level in concentrate mixture (DM basis) in early lactating crossbred cows producing about 10 kg milk per day.