Growth performance, rumen fermentation and blood constituents of goats fed diets supplemented with bentonite [electronic resource].

Includes references.

Fifteen male Angora goats with an average body weight of (12.9) kg was randomly assigned to three groups of five kids each in an 84 days growth experiment . Animals were kept in semi _ opened pens and fed ration that consisted of concentrate mixture and 3 % urea treated rice straw. Bentonite 0 %(control), 2.5 and 5% was mixed for each group with the concentrate mixture. Results showed that inclusion of bentonite significantly (p<0.05) increased daily gain of kids without significant differences between the bentonite groups 2.5 and 5% respectively. Results also showed that addition of bentonite to the ration of kids caused a significant (p<0.05) improvement in feed. conversion efficiency Bentonite significantly (p<0.05) increased dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and crude protein (CP) digestibility . The nutritive value (%) expressed as TDN showed an increase (p<0.05) for the treatments with bentonite . Nitrogen balance of bentonite groups was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the non-treated control, without significant differences between groups in this respect.

Summary in Arabic.

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