The influence of steam treated sugarcane pith on digestibility, rumen passage rate and fermentation of Iranian Baluchi sheep

Abstract

Four rumen and abomasum-fistulated Iranian Baluchi sheep in a 4×4 Latin square design as changeover order were used to study the effect of steam treated sugarcane pith (STP) (210 °C,19 bar, 3 min, moisture 70%) on digestibility, rumen passage rate and fermentation by continuous marker infusion technique. The result showed that intake and apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM) are not influenced by treatment, but the high level of pith had the highest digestibility of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (61%) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) (51%) (P < 0.05). Treatments significantly affected rumen nutrients digestibility (P < 0.05), as digestibility of DM (47 vs. 59.41 g/d), NDF (65 vs. 73%) and ADF (58 vs.70%) was highest in diet containing 120 g/kg pith (STP12) vs. 0.0 g/kg (STP0). Dry matter (50 vs. 42 g/kg DM), crude protein (CP) (131 vs. 108) and NH₃-N (172.2 vs. 147.1 mg/l) of abomasum, respectively, for STP0 and STP12, were linearly affected by treatments (P < 0.05). Processing with steam affected dilution rate (DR), rumen turnover time (TT), out flow rate (OFR) and mean retention time (MRT) (P < 0.05). The highest DR (8.35 vs. 7.09) and OFR (0.47 vs. 0.36 L/h) were obtained for STP0 in comparison to STP12. It seems that nutritive value of sugarcane pith as feed for ruminants could be improved by steam treatment.

Keywords:

• continuous infusion
• rumen volume
• steam treatment
• turnover time