Reducing the adverse effects of anti - nutritional factors in some desert plants on small ruminants / Moustafa Mohamed Mohamed Ahmed Ghandour ; Supervised Mohamed Ahmed Hanafy , Galal Eldin Mohammed Abdulaziz , Afaf Mahmoud Fayed

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Animal Production

This study was divided into two experiments. The first experiment was an in vitro experiment, which aimed to compare the effect of adding polyethylene glycol (PEG 4000), activated sodium bentonite and activated charcoal on deactivation of tannins in Acacia saligna and tamarix aphylla as desert plants. The additives were added to both plants at levels 0, 5, 4, and 4% of DM, respectively. Cumulative gas production at 24hr was insignificantly differ among all treatments and values were ranged from 17.77 to 22.0 for Acacia and from 58.33 to 66.67ml for Tamarix. Activated charcoal detected the lowest in vitro dry matter disappearance (IVDMD) and in vitro organic matter disappearance (IVOMD) of Acacia and tamarix. Accordingly, the second experiment (an in vivo experiment) aimed to compare the effect of adding polyethylene glycol (PEG 4000) and activated sodium bentonite on deactivation of tannins in Acacia hay fed to Barki sheep in fattening trial lasted for 6 months. Twenty growing Barki lambs averaged 30.90 ± 4.63 Kg body weight were randomly divided into four groups, lambs in (G1) were fed on concentrate feed mixture (CFM) + berseem hay, (G2) were fed on CFM + Acacia hay, (G3) were fed on CFM + Acacia hay (+ 5% PEG) and (G4) were fed on CFM + Acacia hay (+ 4% bentonite). The Concentrate feed mixture was fed at 60% of total digestible nutrients (TDN), while the roughage (berseem hay or Acacia hay) was fed ad libitum. Group one had higher values of all digestion coefficients and nutritive values. while, addition of PEG improved the digestibility of crud protein and ether extract and addition of bentonite improved ether extract, compared to Acacia without additives

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