Effect of wheat bran feruloyl oligosaccharides on the performance, blood metabolites, antioxidant status and rumen fermentation of lambs

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of wheat bran feruloyl oligosaccharides (FOs) as an antioxidant supplement on performance, blood metabolites, antioxidant status and ruminal fermentation of lambs. Fifty, two-month-old crossbred male lambs (Dorper × Small-tail Han Sheep) with an initial body weight (BW) of 20.21 ± 3.36 kg were randomly assigned into five groups of ten animals each and fed basal diet with dietary wheat bran FOs supplementation at 0, 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg feed, respectively. The experimental period lasted 56 days and was preceded by an adaption period of 14 days. The absorption spectrum of FOs product used in this study revealed the presence of an esterified feruloyl group. The esterified FA concentration of this product reached 0.99 mmol/g. The feed conversion ratio improved quadratically (P <  0.05) with increasing FOs supplementation at stage from 29 to 56 days and over the whole experiment. During 29-56 days, the average daily gain of the lambs receiving 100 and 200 mg/kg FOs tended to be higher than lambs receiving 400 mg/kg FOs (P =  0.06). The apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) were significantly reduced when lambs were fed the 400 mg/kg FOs diet (P <  0.05). Supplementing lambs with 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg FOs significantly increased serum concentrations of total protein (P <  0.05), meanwhile, th...
Source: Small Ruminant Research - Category: Zoology Source Type: research