Effects of dietary fossil shell flour supplementation on a basal diet, relative feed values, in vitro true digestibility, and rumen fermentation parameters of Dohne-Merino wethers

Figures & data

Table 1. Proximate analysis of the experimental diets

Items	Percentage (%)
Maize	8
Sunflower oil cake	10
Molasses	5
Wheat bran	15
Limestone	1.6
Sheep premix	0.2
Salt	0.3
Ground leucine hay (alfalfa)	30
Ground teff hay	30
Chemical composition
Dry matter (% as fed)	95.5
Organic matter	85.22
Energy ME	24.67
Crude Protein	14.56
Ash	10.33
Ether extract	1.7
NDF	44.26
ADF	40.16

Table 2. Mineral composition of Fossil shell flour (FSF).

Items	Quantity
DM %	93
Ca	0.40
% CaO (calculated from %Ca)	0.55
Mg	0.21
%MgO (calculated from %Mg)	0.34
K%	0.16
Cu (mg/kg)	30
Na (mg/kg)	923
Zn(mg/kg)	118
Fe(mg/kg)	7944
Mn(mg/kg)	69
P (as P2O5)	0.037
Sulfate Sulfur (S)%	0.062
Aluminium (Al) %	0.065
Vanadium (V) %	0.00438
Boron (B) %	0.0023

Table 3. Effects of varying inclusion levels of FSF in diets on rumen parameters of Dohne-merino.

Parameter	0%FSF	2%FSF	4%FSF	6%FSF	SEM	P-Value
NHᴣ -N(mg/dL)	4.94b	8.43a	4.22b	5.33b	1.12	0.01
pH	6.67	6.72	6.74	6.88	0.03	0.07
T°C	34.17	34.33	34.33	34.63	0.13	0.03
Total VFA (mM)	64.72	58.18	54.45	52.91	20.30	0.52
Acetic (mmol/l)	33.48	29.30	27.69	23.62	13.67	0.10
Butyric(mmol/l)	13.66	11.60	11.53	13.09	1.23	0.144
Propionic(mmol/l)	16.61	15.60	13.04	15.55	1.89	0.46
Iso-butyric(mmol/l)	0.65	0.42	0.96	0.04	0.84	0.95
Valeric(mmol/l)	0.12	0.46	0.70	0.46	0.27	0.46
Isovaleric(mmol/l)	0.20	0.53	0.53	0.14	0.02	0.13
Acetate: propionic ratio	2.015	1.846	2.123	1.518	0.82	0.23

Table 4. Chemical composition of the diets with varying FSF inclusion levels.

Levels of FSF inclusion	DM(as feed)	OM	CP	EE	ASH	NDF	ADF	ADL
0%FSF	95.52 ± 1.02	88.27 ± 1.4	14.72 ± 1.05	1.55 ± 1.03	11.72 ± 0.60	44.26 ± 0.9	40.16 ± 5.94	11.07 ± 1.2
2%FSF	95.49 ± 1.02	90.54 ± 1.4	14.57 ± 1.05	1.72 ± 1.03	9.44 ± 0.60	39.2 ± 0.9	31.52 ± 5.94	11.52 ± 1.2
4%FSF	95.89 ± 1.02	90.47 ± 1.4	14.62 ± 1.05	1.90 ± 1.03	9.51 ± 0.60	39.53 ± 0.9	31.64 ± 5.94	11.30 ± 1.2
6%FSF	95.56 ± 1.02	89.74 ± 1.4	15.51 ± 1.05	1.99 ± 1.03	10.29 ± 0.60	38.74 ± 0.9	31.08 ± 5.94	11.34 ± 1.2

DM = dry matter, OM = organic matter,CP = crude protein,EE = ether extract,NDF = neutral detergent fibre, ADF = acid detergent fibre, ADL = acid detergent Lignin

Table 5. In vitro true digestibility of Dohne-merino diets with various levels of Fossil shell flour.

Parameter					SEM	P-Value
	0%FSF	2%FSF	4%FSF	6%FSF
IVTDDM %	62.38a	58.76b	58.13b	55.4c	1.19	0.05
IVTDOM %	64.38a	60.83b	59.98b	57.21c	1.14	0.001
IVTDNDF%,	39.03	34.79	36.67	38.26	3.12	≥0.05
IVTDADF%	34.44	31.87	34.58	35.82	2.84	≥0.05
IVTDADL%	12.60b	12.43b	19.02a	16.66ab	2.16	0.0001

IVTD^DM  = In-vitro true digestibility dry matter, IVTD^OM  = In-vitro true digestibility organic matter, IVTD^NDF = In-vitro true digestibility neutral detergent fibre, IVTD^ADF=  In-vitro true digestibility acid detergent fibre IVTD^ADL=  In-vitro true digestibility acid detergent lignin

Table 6. Effects of FSF inclusion levels on diet quality.

Levels of FSF inclusion	DMD%	DMI(%LW)	RFV	RFV -Quality	%INVTD
0%	62.07ab	3.10a	149.95a	1-good	83.44a
2%	64.07	3.50	175.60	Prime	87.48a
4%	58.07b	3.47a	155.99a	Prime	84.53a
6%	60.99ab	3.15a	150.08a	1-Premium	86.85a
SEM	2.21	0.32	17.90		2.89
P-value	0.05	0.08	0.07		0.05

DMD = dry matter digestibility, DMI = dry matter intake, RFV = relative feed value

Data availability

Data will be available upon request.