Page 65 - Effects of dried citrus pulp on nutrient intake, nitrogen balance and growth performance in Lohi lambs

Nitrogen Metabolism

Effects of DCP on nitrogen metabolism was non-significant, which is in agreement
with Chen et al. (1981). Bhattacharya and Harb (1973) also noticed non-significant effect

on nitrogen retention in Awassi lambs fed various levels of DCP in diet. Similarly,

Williams et al. (1987) found no effect of DCP on nitrogen retention in calves. Non-
significant effect of various levels of DCP on nitrogen retention might be due to its poor

effect on intake and digestibility.

Contrary to this study, Oni et al. (2008) reported an increased nitrogen balance in

dwarf goats fed various levels of DCP in their diets. While, Ammerman et al. (1972)

reported decreased nitrogen retention in animals fed various levels of DCP. Rihani et al.
(1993) reported that retention of the nitrogen was significantly increased by level of DCP

fed to the animals. The reason for more retention of nitrogen in body might be the higher
palatability with increase in DCP level of diet (Bhattacharya and Harb, 1973).

Blood Metabolites

Findings of our study for blood glucose level are similar with Bhattacharya and

Harb (1973) who replaced corn with DCP in diets of Awassi lambs. They concluded that

there was a non-significant effect of various levels of DCP on blood glucose level. Oni et
al. (2008) reported that there is no effect of various levels of DCP on blood glucose in West

African dwarf goats. Similar results were found by Belibasakis and Tsirgogianni (1996)
who observed no effect of DCP on blood glucose level in dairy cows. Broderick et al.

(2002) reported non-significant effect of DCP on blood glucose in cow fed DCP based
diets. The reason for non-significant results might be due to non-significant effect on intake

and digestibility of DCP based diets.

Results of blood urea nitrogen in our study are in agreement with Ahooei et al.
(2011) who reported no effect of DCP on blood urea nitrogen in male fattening calves.

Similarly, Broderick et al. (2002) observed non-significant effect, he further noticed that
there was a slight decrease in BUN with increase in level of DCP in diet. Belibasakis and

Tsirgogianni (1996) also reported non-significant difference in BUN of dairy cows fed

control and DCP diets. Similar results were observed by Pinzon and Wing (1976) who
found no effect of DCP on BUN. Non-significant results might be due to equal capacity of

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