Welcome to Acta Prataculturae Sinica ! Today is Share:

Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2015, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (4): 114-120.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb20150413

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of feeding grape pomace on nutrient digestibility, body weight gain, and carcass quality in lambs

LU Zhen-Zhen1,ZHENG Chen1, LI Fa-Di1,2, LI Chong1,TANG De-Fu1*, WENG Xiu-Xiu2,LIU Ting1, MA Zhi-Yuan2, MA Dong-Fang1   

  1. 1.College of Animal Science and Technology,Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070,China;
    2.College of Grassland Agricultural Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems,Lanzhou 730000,China
  • Received:2014-04-03 Revised:2014-05-22 Online:2015-04-20 Published:2015-04-20

Abstract: A total of 60 hybrid 3-month-old Dorper (♂) × Small Tail Han sheep (♀) F1 male lambs were randomly allocated to 4 groups with 15 animals per group to determine the effect of different levels of grape pomace on nutrient digestibility, body weight gain, and carcass quality. The control group (groupⅠ) was fed a base diet without grape pomace, while the trial groups were fed diets with grape pomace added to the base diet at 8%, 16% or 24% on a dry weight basis (groups Ⅱ, Ⅲ and Ⅳ), respectively. The condensed tannin (CT) levels in the diets for each group were 0, 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5 g/kg, respectively. The apparent digestibility of acid detergent fiber (ADF) and N of the control group were significantly higher than group Ⅳ(P<0.05). In contrast, the lambs in trial groups had significantly higher average daily feed intake, average daily gain, carcass weight, dressing out rate and GR values (carcass fat cotent) (P<0.05), as well as a higher N retention rate (P<0.01), than the control group. The feed conversion rate (P<0.01) and carcass net meat content of group Ⅱ were significantly higher (P<0.05) than for the control group. With increase of CT content in the diet, apparent digestibility of N, ADF and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) gradually decreased. However, apparent N retention increased. In conclusion, dietary supplementation with 8%-16% of grape pomace had a positive effect on feed conversion efficiency, average daily body weight gain, carcass characteristics and nutrient utilization.