Effects of dietary energy and protein levels on nutrient intake, digestibility, and body weight change in Hararghe highland and Afar sheep breeds of Ethiopia
Sileshi Gadissa, Mitiku Eshetu, Mengistu Urge, Adugna Tolera, Fekede Feyissa
Abstract
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: 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.