Plant secondary compounds in small ruminant feeding in stall-fed and pastoral system in the Mediterranean

The utilization of alternative feed resources such as agro-industrial by-products or rangelands may contribute to reduce carbon footprint and improve sustainability of livestock farming systems.My thesis aimed at investigating how animals can be made to ingest alternative feed resources containing higher amounts of Plant Secondary compounds (PSCs) than usual forages and concentrates. PSCs are present in agroindutrial by products and in the natural vegetation of rangelands in the Mediterranean area. They are often associated with anti-nutritive properties such as reduced palatability and protein digestion but can also have positive effects especially on health. Two systems of lamb meat production were investigated, namely stall-fed in Siciliy and pastoral in Morocco. In the stall-fed system, we investigated the potential of replacing barley by two locally available agro industrial by- products containing polyphenols, namely carob pulp and dehydrated citrus pulp (DCP). The animals were 90 days of age Ccomisana lambs assessed during fattening. Food intake pattern and blood metabolic profile were monitored. It was found that ingestion of a diet containing 35% of carob pulp or DCP resulted in comparable performance, feed efficiency and carcass weight and yield as compared to animals ingesting a cereal based diet (control). The daily feed consumption pattern was markedly affected by the inclusion of carob pulp in the diet.Control group ate more than 40% of the whole daily intake in the first 90 min of feeding compared with only 33% in the carob groups but the overall feed intake was unchanged. The highest level of DCP inclusion in the diet also produced a different rate of feed consumption, as compared to the control group. In terms of blood metabolic profile, carob ingesting animals had lower cholesterol, higher urea and higher NEFA compared to the control whilst with DCP ingestion none of the parameters measured were affectedPertaining to the blood protein profile, carob pulp addition gave minor effects, only a tendency for the albumin to globulin (AG) ratio to rise has been observed; in the case of DCP inclusion in lambs diet, the serum albumin and the AG ratio was higher compared to the control; but the values were not a a level to cause metabolic distress.

Grantor dc:publisher

Università degli studi di Catania

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• GOBINDRAM, MOHAMMAD NOOR EHSAN NEWAZ

Contributors dc:contributor

• BIONDI, Luisa
• AVONDO, Marcella

• plant secondary compounds, small ruminants, stall fed system, grazing system

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• license:PUBBLICO - Pubblico con Copyright
• license uri:iris.PUB02

Language dc:language

eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/588370

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.iris.unict.it:20.500.11769/588370