Martínez Loarte, Enrique M.

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    Consumo y digestibilidad de una dieta para corderos basada en henos de gramíneas tropicales y de la invasora Hyparrhenia rufa al incorporarle un probiótico aportador de Bacillus subtilis y Bacillus licheniformis
    (2013) Martínez Loarte, Enrique M.; Rodríguez Carías, Abner A.; College of Agricultural Sciences; Fernández Van Cleve, John A.; Randel Folling, Paul F.; Solórzano, Luis C.; Latorre Acevedo, José R.; Department of Animal Science; Bellido Rodríguez, Carmen M.
    An experiment consisting of two periods (P1 and P2) was conducted to determine the effect of adding a probiotic of bacterial strains of Bacillus subtilis and B. licheniformis to a basal diet of low quality grass hays and a moderate supplementation with concentrates on voluntary consumption (VC) and digestibility, utilizing 10 Creole lambs (11.2 kg initial live weight, LW). The animals were randomly assigned to one of two treatments; control (without additive) or probiotic (additive in diet). The basal diet consisted of a daily forage offering equal to 4% of LW on a dry matter (DM) basis. The forage offered was 50% native grass hay (71.7% NDF, 4.9% CP in P1 and 71.2% NDF, 5.4% CP in P2) and 50% of Hyparrhenia rufa hay (78.8% NDF, 3.5% CP in P1 and 75.6% NDF, 5.5% CP in P2). The lambs were supplemented with 225 g daily of commercial concentrate (CC). The additive was fed in mixture with the CC to supply 1.33 X 108cfu/head daily during the first 49 days (P1). From day 50 to 84 (P2), the probiotic addition was suspended to determine possible residual effects. The lambs were weighed weekly during the whole experiment. The VC and digestibility of DM, NDF and CP were determined from day 42 to 49 in P1 and from day 77 to 84 in P2. The variables related to parasitism and anemia: fecal eggs count (FEC), FAMACHA® index score and packed cell volume (PCV) were determined every 21 days. Data from each experimental period were analyzed according to a completely randomized design with 5 replicas per treatment. During P1, the daily LW gain of the lambs was 23 vs. 20 g and total LW gain was 1.14 vs. 1.00 kg for control and probiotic treatments, respectively. The dietary addition of probiotic increased (p<0.05) total DM intake (445 vs. 484 g/d), DM intake as a percentage of LW (2.04 vs. 2.37) and forage DM as a percentage of total DM intake (54.77 vs. 59.42). The digestibility coefficients of DM (59.98 vs. 62.62%) and CP (59.35 vs. 61.76%) did not differ between treatments, but there was a tendency (p=0.09) to improve NDF digestibility (58.71 vs. 62.48%) with probiotic addition. The FEC observed in the control and probiotic groups were 820 vs. 1380 epg initially and increased more in the control (p<0.05) to 2390 vs. 2780 epg at day 21, then decreased less in this group to 1830 vs. 1480 epg at day 42. The PCV values changed between days 0 and 42 from 24.4 to 17.9% in the control and from 20.6 to 22.6 in the probiotic group, but without significant effects (p>0.05). The anemia level according to FAMACHA® score differed little between treatments and did not exceed a maximum of 2.6. During P2, the LW gain of the lambs of both groups was 48 g/d upon comparing the control and previous probiotic treatments. Total DM intake was 587 vs. 562 g/d and the digestibilities were: DM (58.46 vs. 57.59%), NDF (57.50 vs. 56.85%) and CP (60.78 vs. 62.11%) without significant differences (p>0.05). The FEC decreased progressively to respective final values at 84 days of 1230 vs. 440 epg, while the PCV increased to 23.4 vs. 25.1% at day 84 without significant differences. The maximum FAMACHA® score was 2.8 vs. 2.2 in the two respective treatments. In summary, the addition of probiotic in the diet improved VC by the lambs and tended to increase NDF digestibility, did not affect growth, but showed some signs of benefiting animal health. After suspending additive inclusion in the diet, no residual effect on the evaluated variables was observed.