Digestion rate of oats hay and grains in Camel and Sheep

Abstract

This study was conducted at the department of Animal Production Experimental station faculty of Agriculture University of Tripoli. The objective of this study was to compare the rate of digestion between camel and sheep fed oat hay and grains. Four male of camel and four males of sheep were used in digestion trial by difference. The results of this study indicate that the dry matter digestibility of hay was (46.12% and 41.56%) in sheep and camel respectively, the difference was significant (P>0.05); while the dry matter digestibility of grains was (71.08% and 73.55%) in sheep and camel respectively, the difference was not significant (P>0.05). The coefficient of protein digestion was (50.69% and 57.21%) for camel and sheep respectively when fed oat straw. In this case the difference was significant (P>0.05), but it was not significant (P>0.05) (50.69% and 52.99%) for camel and sheep respectively when fed oat grains. The coefficient of fiber digestion was (36.27% and 48.87%) for camel and sheep respectively, when fed oat straw and the difference was significant (P>0.05), while it was (33.42% and 39.57%) for camel and sheep respectively, when fed oat grain the difference was significant (P>0.05).  The TDN of oat hay 54.12% was significantly (P>0.05) higher than 48.09% for sheep while there was no significant difference (P>0.05), between sheep 64.58% and camel 66.48% when fed oat Grains. The hay digestible protein was 4.4% and 3.9% for sheep and camel and grains digestible protein was 4.81% and 4.64% for sheep and camel respectively. Both results were significantly not different (P<0.05).

Key words: Camel, Sheep, Digestion, Protein, Fibers.