Page 63 - Effects of dried citrus pulp on nutrient intake, nitrogen balance and growth performance in Lohi lambs

DISCUSION

Chemical composition

Chemical composition of DCP in this study are in consistent with Abdullah (2013)

who observed 90.63, 94.57, 6.32, 20.68 and 14.32% DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF,
respectively. Similar results were observed by Belibasakis and Tsirgogianni (1996) who

found that DCP had 90.4% DM, 6.2% CP. Our study was in partial agreement with
Watanabe et al. (2010) who reported that DCP contained 89.10%, 6.35, 18.85 and 14.32%

DM, CP, NDF and ADF, respectively. Similar results were noticed by Ibrahim et al. (2011)
who observed 94.98, 6.40 and 5.02% OM, CP and ash contents, respectively. Oni et al.

(2008) also reported that DCP had 6.3 and 5.13% CP and ash contents respectively.

Contrary to this study, Fegeros et al. (1995) reported that DCP contained 83.15%
OM, 7.75% CP, 19.4% NDF and 12.8% ADF. Kour et al. (2014) observed that DCP

contained 92.05% DM, 7.6% CP, 26.35% NDF and 19.5% ADF. Ibrahim et al. (2011)
reported higher level of NDF (26.21%) and ADF (20.3%) contents. Hernández et al. (2012)

noticed higher CP (7.6%) and lower ash (3.9%) which opposes our findings. Variations in

chemical composition of citrus pulp are attributed to the difference in soil properties used
for growing citrus (Lambert et al., 2008) or juice extraction method, which affects chemical

composition of citrus pulp (Arthington et al., 2002).

Nutrient intake

Non-significant effect on nutrient intake was observed in lambs fed 10, 20, 30 and
40% DCP. Our findings are in accordance with Loggins et al. (1968) who reported non-

significant effect of DCP on nutrients intake in lambs fed different levels of DCP. Similar

results were reported by McCullough and Sisk (1972), who fed concentrate to animals
containing 15 and 25% DCP and reported that there is no difference among different levels

of DCP in diets of steers. Santos et al. (2014) also found non-significant effect on feed
intake using various levels of DCP in diet. In accordance to our findings, O’Mara et al.

(1999) reported no difference in nutrient intake between cattle and sheep fed various levels

of DCP in diet.

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