UTILIZATION OF TRIMMING WASTE OF MANDARIN TREES AS FEED FOR SMALL RUMINANTS 1: PALATABILITY AND NUTRITIVE VALUE FOR TREATED VS. UNTREATED WASTES AND THE EFFECT ON ANIMAL IMMUNE STATUS

In Egypt, a tremendous amount of trimming byproducts of Mandarin is usually produced without benefits usage. This experiment was conducted at Siwa Research Station to assess the nutritive value and utilization of Mandarin trimming waste (TW) after treating with certain additives to be used as untraditional roughage. Two trials were conducted for this purpose. The first was a palatability trial using twenty-four Barki ewes (with 36.13 ± 0.175 kg as average body weight). The second was a digestibility trial using sixteen Barki rams (with an average body weight of 43.94 ± 0.157 kg). The main objectives were to determine nutrient digestibility, nutritive value, water utilization as well as rumen fermentation and blood profile. In addition, the effect of these roughages on animals' blood chemical components and immune status were evaluated. Animals of both trials were divided into four groups and fed four roughages as follows. The first group fed Berssem hay (BH) as control; the second roughage is un-treated trimming waste without any additives (UTW); the third roughage is the waste treated with liquid feed enriched with yeast (Sacchromyces cerevisiae) (YTW); and the fourth roughage is the waste treated with liquid feed enriched with ZADO (ZTW). The results showed that silica, saponin and total tannin contents were higher in untraditional roughage (UTW) than traditional roughage (BH). The treated wastes (YTW and ZTW) were higher in CP, Ash, EE, and GE contents than either untreated one (UTW) or BH. However, the opposite trend was found relating CF content. At the end of palatability trial, DMI improved by 31.5, 70.8, 70.9 and 133.5% for hay, UTW, YTW and ZTW groups, respectively. The experimental treatments resulted in higher (P<0.05) DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF digestibility compared with UTW or BH (Table 5). In addition YTW increased CF digestibility by 12.8% more than ZTW. Both of two treated waste (YTW and ZTW) and BH diets were almost similar (P< 0.05) in nutritive values as TDN% but UTW showed the lowest value. Furthermore, DCP% were higher (P<0.05) in treated waste (YTW and ZTW) than in both of UTW and BH roughages. All sheep were in a positive nitrogen balance (NB). Animals of BH group tended to drink much more (P<0.05) water than the other three groups. Meanwhile, animals fed ZTW ration showed the highest (Ρ<0.05) value of insensible water loss. The rumen fermentation indicators (pH, NH3-N and TVFA's) were also investigated. Serum total proteins and Albumins exhibited almost similar values for the experimental groups. Animals fed treated trimming waste (YTW and ZTW) expressed higher values of Kidney function indicators (creatinine, urea, and uric acid) as compared with the other two groups (UTW and BH). The experimental diets has no effect (P<0.01) on blood concentration of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and liver enzymes (aspartate amino transferase, alanine amino transferase, gama glutamyl transferase and alkaline phosphatase. Values of RBC's and Hb were similar in both YTW and ZTW groups compared to UTW. The values of serum immunoglobulins (IgG and IgM) in rams were higher (P<0.05) in those fed trimming waste than that fed BH. So, it can be concluded that using biologically treated trimming waste of mandarin trees could cover the nutrients required for maintenance of sheep under the desert conditions and enhanced animal immune status as well as reduction of feed cost and preventing environmental pollution.