GROWTH PERFORMANCE, FEED UTILIZATION, RUMINAL PARAMETERS, ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF MALE ZARAIBI GOATS FED RATIONS CONTAINING LINSSED OR SUNFLOWER OILS

ABSTRACT
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of supplementing linseed or sunflower oils to the growing male kids diets on growth performance, feed utilization, ruminal fermentation, blood metabolites, economic efficiency and carcass characteristics. Fifteen Zaraibi kids (aged 5 months and had 17.62 ± 0.19 kg live weight) were divided into 3 groups (5 kids each), according to their live body weight. The control group (G1) fed a basal ration consisted of 60% concentrate feed mixture (CFM) plus 40% berseem hay (BH) according to NRC (1981) allowances. Linseed oil and sunflower oil added to the control diet at level 3% of total DM intake for G2 and G3, respectively. The feeding trail lasted 120 days.
The results of this study indicated that, the values of final live body weight of kids in tested groups (2 and 3) significantly higher than control group (G1), being 29.8 and 29.3 vs. 26.68 kg, respectively. These weights of G2 and G3 increased by 11.69 % and 9.82 % than weight of control (G1). Moreover, the results indicated that daily body gain (DBG)) recorded the highest value (101.67 g) with G2 followed by G3 (96.67 g) and lastly G1 (75.0 g) and the differences were significant. The DBG increased by 35.56 and 28.89% with G2 and G3, compared to control group (G1). The best-feed utilization efficiency, based on DM intake, was recorded with G2 (6.25) followed by G3 (6.62) in comparison with G1 (8.60), respectively. Moreover, the improvement in feed efficiency, based on CP, was 27.33 and 23.02 % for the two tested groups (G2 and G3), compared with control (G1). Thus, the feed economic efficiency was noticeably better by 4.89 % and 14.69% with adding linseed oil (G2) and sunflower oil (G3), at level 3% of total DM intake, respectively, compared with G1 (control). The obtained results showed that the daily DM intake decreased (63.09 vs. 60.06 and 59.12 g/kgw0.75) due to adding oil types to goats rations (G1 vs. G3 and G2, respectively).
The experimental rations had no significant effect on ruminal pH values and total VFA''s during 2, 4 and 6 hrs post-feeding. However, ammonia-N concentration and microbial protein, during 2, 4 and 6 hrs post-feeding, were significantly higher (p