Dietary marine algae (Schizochytrium sp.) for feedlot lambs: performance, digestibility, ruminal parameters and carcass and meat quality

• Grant number: 16/01159-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2016
• End date: July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: Américo Garcia da Silva Sobrinho
• Grantee: Américo Garcia da Silva Sobrinho
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Hirasilva Borba ; Jane Maria Bertocco Ezequiel ; Nivea Maria Brancacci Lopes Zeola

Abstract

The study will be developed in the Ovine Production Laboratory of the Department of Animal Science, College of Agricultural and Veterinarian Sciences, São Paulo State University, Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil. Thirty-two Ile de France lambs, not castrated, with 20.0 ± 0.2 kg will receive the following diets D0: corn silage + concentrate without algae meal; D2: corn silage + concentrate + 2% algae meal; D4: corn silage + concentrate + 4% algae meal and D6: corn silage + concentrate + 6% algae meal with roughage:concentrate ratio 40:60 up to 35.0 ± 0.2 kg of body weight . The objectives will be to evaluate the performance (dry matter intake, body weight gain and feed conversion), nutrient digestibility (DM, OM, CP, EE, NDF, ADF, TC, NFC and GE), nitrogen balance, the quantitative parameters of the carcass (hot and cold carcass yield and chilling loss) and the meat quality (pH, color, water holding capacity, water losses by defrosting and cooking, shear force, number of substances reactive to 2-thiobarbituric acid and sensory analysis), centesimal composition (moisture, protein, fat and minerals), fatty acid profile (intramuscular fat), cholesterol content, activity of the desaturase and elongase enzymes, atherogenicity and thrombogenicity index of the meat from Longissimus muscle and the fatty acid profile of perirrenal, mesenteric and subcutaneous fats. The experimental design will be completely randomized with four treatments and eight replicates, being the comparisons of the treatments by orthogonal contrasts, performed with the assistance of the SAS statistical program, version 9.4. At the same time, eight Santa Ines wethers, with average body weight of 50 kg will receive the same four diets to evaluate the ruminal parameters (pH, ammonia nitrogen (N-NH3)), short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and long-chain fatty acids (LCFA) ruminal synthesis, digestibility and in vitro gas production. The experimental design will be a double latin square 4 x 4 with four treatments and four replicates, with time to adaptation to the diets of fourteen days and five days of harvest, being the comparisons of the treatments by orthogonal contrasts, performed with the assistance of the SAS statistical program, version 9.4. (AU)