INTAKE AND DIGESTIBILITY OF FIBER FRACTION OF F ERMENTED RICE STRAW AS AFFECTED BY INTRAMUSCULAR VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENT IN SHEEP

Abstract

An experiment has been carried out to investigate the effect of intramuscular supplementation of vitamin A in sheep fed with solely fermented rice straw as fibrous source. Thirty young male sheep with an averaged liveweight of 24.0 + 2.7 kg were divided into 6 groups to receive one of 5 different pulse dose of intramuscular supplementation of vitamin A, i.e., none, O, 28, 56, or 84 days after the commencement of feeding the fermented rice straw, following two weeks preliminary period and assigned as R0, R1, R2, R3 and R4, respectively. The rice straw was fermented using a mixture of probiotic and urea for 21 days. The fermented rice straw was fed ad libitum allowing some residual feed in the following day. Concentrate feed with crude protein content of 13.57% was given at 200 g headl day" and offered before feeding the fennented rice straw. The intake and digestion trial was carried out for 7 days at the end of feeding trial (during the week 13th). The feed intake, and fecal output were recorded every day. Samples of feed offered and fecal output were taken and analyzed for the fiber fraction contents. Results indicated that the daily intake of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) fraction from fermented rice straw were not significantly different among treatments, with an average of NDF intake at 12.8 g kg" body weight. The mean of daily acid detergent fiber (ADP) intake from fermented rice straw was 12.6 g kg'] body weight. The concentrate contributed approximately 3 g NDF kg" body weight or 2 g ADP kg‘1 body weight to the total intake. The digestibility of NDF ranging from 36.2 to 47.0% which were not significantly different among treatments with a mean of 42.7%. Similarly, the digestibility of ADF were not significantly different among treatments, ranging from 39.6 to 48.2% with a mean of 44.8%. It was concluded that intramuscular supplementation of vitamin A may not be necessary for sheep fed with entirely fermented rice straw as source of fiber, especially during a relatively short period of time.