Vol. 7, Issue 7 (2018)

Author(s):
Irfan Ahmad Daraaz, HA Ahmed, AM Ganai, MA Bhat, GG Sheikh, Shalender Srivastava and Shaheen Kousar Jan

Abstract:
A study was undertaken in two phases to evaluate the effects of feeding fungal treated and ensiled apple pomace paddy straw based complete diet in the ration of eighteen female Corriedale sheep divided into three equal groups as per CRD on nutrient utilization, growth performance, haemato-biochemical parameters. Nutritional worth of experimental feeds revealed non-significant (p≤0.05) difference in % DCP, ME (kcal/g) and DE (kcal/g) and % TDN between the experimental groups with highest numerical value in T₃ in comparison to T₁ and T₂, while as NR in group T3 was significantly (p≤0.05) lower than T₁ and T₂. Intake of digestible nutrients showed significantly (p≤0.05) higher values in T₃ as compared to T₁ and T₂ (p≤0.05) in, DDMI (g/d) DOMI (g/d), DCPI (g/d) and TDNI (g/d) whereas digestible nutrient intake when expressed in % of body weight and/kg W^0.75, could not reveal any significant (p≤0.05) difference between the experimental groups. Significantly (p≤0.05) higher values were also reported in the nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous intake and nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous balance in T₃ group followed by T₂ and T_1. The studies on hemato-biochemical parameters revealed significant (p≤0.05) increase in Hb of the treatment group in T₂ in comparison to T₁ and T₃. However, PCV, serum creatinine, BUN, blood glucose and total protein showed non-significant difference between the groups. The effect of period irrespective of the treatment on Hb and total protein was found significant (P≤0.05), showing an increasing trend with the advancement of age.