Nutritional Performance of Dry She-Camels Fed Atriplex halimus (Saltbush) For Prolonged-Period

Shawket, Safinaz; El Shaer, Hassan; Ahmed, Mohamed

doi:10.21608/ejcs.2024.211113.1005

Nutritional Performance of Dry She-Camels Fed Atriplex halimus (Saltbush) For Prolonged-Period

Document Type : Original Research Articles (Regular Papers)

Authors

¹ Department of Nutrition, Desert Research Center

² Dept. of nutrition, DRC

³ Department of animal and fish Production, Faculty of Agriculture (Saba Basha), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.

10.21608/ejcs.2024.211113.1005

Abstract

Eighteen adult dry she-camels with an average body weight of 374.33±15.35 kg were distributed by weight into three equal groups (six animals each). The first group was fed berseem hay (BH) ad libitum (the control group) for 360 days. The second and third groups were fed ad libitum fresh leaves and succulent stems of Atriplex halimus (saltbush) for 180 days (short-period) and 360 days (long-period), respectively. Each camel in the experimental groups was supplemented with a concentrate diet consisting of 60 % ground yellow corn plus 40% ground barley grains to cover 100% of the maintenance energy requirements. The effects of the prolonged period of feeding atriplex halimus on feed utilization, nitrogen balance and dry she-camel performance were studied. The short-period camel group recorded the highest (P<0.05) dry matter intake (DMI) compared to long-period and control, respectively (75.64 vs. 70.96 and 67.04 g/day/Kgw0.75). Whereas, the digestibility of DM, OM and NFE was not affected (P > 0.05) by changing either the type of roughage or period feeding of atriplex. On the other hand, CP, CF and EE digestibility were decreased (P<0.05) by feeding atriplex either for short or long periods; nevertheless, it was noticeable that CP, CF and EE digestibility when atriplex was fed for long-term were higher (P<0.05) than those fed atriplex for short-period. Camel group fed the atriplex for the long period tended to retain more nitrogen (P<0.05) than the short-period and BH groups , respectively. Present results indicated that camels can be successfully adapted to prolong feeding of saltbushes.

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