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Nutrient intake, growth performance and nutrient digestibility of pre- and post-weaning Dorper lambs fed varying crude protein level

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Abstract

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of varying crude protein (CP) levels on intake, growth performances and nutrient digestibility of Dorper lambs at pre- and post-weaning period. Twenty lambs at 7 days old with an initial body weight of 2.91 kg were individually penned and randomly assigned into four (4) dietary groups using a randomised complete block design. In Trial I, pre-weaning lambs were fed with creep feeding (CF) diet containing 14% crude protein (CP) as a control diet (CON14), 16% (CF16), 18% (CF18) and 20% (CF20) of CP for 84 days. Following Trial 1, the animals were fed with a growing ration (GR) diet for 96-day feeding trial. The diets consisted of 11% CP as a control diet (CON11), 14% (GR14), 16% (GR16) and 18% (GR18) of CP. The water was available ad libitum and the feed intake was measured daily by the difference of feed offered and refused. The increase of CP level resulted in a linear increase of dry matter intake (DMI), nutrient intake and average daily gain (ADG) in pre- and post-weaning lambs. The DMI (g/day) of lambs fed with CF20 (1059.92) was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than CON14 (605.30), but it did not differ significantly with CF16 (866.80) and CF18 (680.40). Besides, the DMI (g/day) of lambs fed GR18 was found significantly higher than CON11 and GR16. In pre- and post-weaning lambs, there was a quadratic effect of increased CP level on the ADG. The ADG (g/day) of pre-weaning lambs fed with CF18 (247.86) and CF20 (251.28) were not significantly different (p > 0.05) compared to those fed with CF16 (217.95). For post-weaning lambs, GR16 had significantly higher ADG than CON11 (43.14), but it was no difference with GR14 (72.94) and GR18 (69.41). However, increased CP level resulted in linear increase of DM, ash, organic matter (OM) and CP digestibility. The present finding suggested that the optimum CP level for pre- and post-weaning Dorper lambs in Malaysia was 16% and 14%, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a Ph.D. degree. The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of the lab assistants of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UMK and the Faculty of Agro-based Industry, UMK.

Funding

This study was funded by the Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education under the fundamental research grant scheme (FRGS): R/FRGS/A.06.00/00534A/007/2017/000439.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Sciences and Sport Technology, School of Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Pontian Lama, Skudai, 81300, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

    Mira Panadi & Malarvili Balakrishnan

  2. Department of Pre-Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Locked Bag 36, 16100, Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia

    Mira Panadi & Mohd Azam Khan Goriman Khan

  3. Department of Agriculture Science, Faculty of Agro-Based Industry, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, 17600, Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia

    Khairiyah Mat, Mohammad Mijanur Rahman & Nor Dini Rusli

  4. Institute of Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Jeli Campus, 17600, Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia

    Khairiyah Mat, Mohammad Mijanur Rahman & Nor Dini Rusli

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  1. Mira Panadi
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  2. Khairiyah Mat
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  4. Mohd Azam Khan Goriman Khan
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  5. Malarvili Balakrishnan
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Contributions

NDR and KM conceived and designed research. MP conducted experiments and analysed data. MP wrote the original draft preparation. NDR, KM, MMR, MAKG and MB reviewed and revised the manuscript draft. KM, NDR and MAKGK supervised the research work. NDR contributed the materials and reagents. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nor Dini Rusli.

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The study protocol and procedure were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK/FPV/ACUE/PG/2/2019).

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The study protocol and procedure were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK/FPV/ACUE/PG/2/2019).

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Panadi, M., Mat, K., Rahman, M.M. et al. Nutrient intake, growth performance and nutrient digestibility of pre- and post-weaning Dorper lambs fed varying crude protein level. Trop Anim Health Prod 53, 515 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-021-02953-3

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