Effect of different levels of orange waste on nutrient digestibility, fibrolytic enzyme, ruminal and blood characteristics in Dalagh ewe

In order to investigate the effect of different levels of orange waste on feed consumption, digestibility of nutrients, ruminal behavior, cellulase enzymes and blood parameters in Dalagh ewe, 12 Dalagh ewes with age of 1-1.5 years and with average body weight of 33.4 ± 0.9 was used. This experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three treatments and four replications. The treatments consisted of 1- control treatment, 2- treatment containing 10 percent of orange waste, and 3- treatment containing 20 percent of orange waste. The whole period of the experiment was carried out in 44 days, consisting of 14 days of adaptation period and 30 days for sampling period. Fecal samples were collected on days 25 to 27 for three days and three animals from each treatment for determine digestibility. On the day 20, activities on rumination behavior of ewes were estimated for 24 hours. Blood samples were taken at the end of period before the morning feeding to measure blood parameters. Sampling from ruminanl fluid 3h after morning feeding was done day 30 to measure pH, protozoan population and acivity of fibrolytic enzyme. The orange waste effectively increased protozoa, resting time, extracellular micro crystalline and total micro crystalline and decreased eating time, rumination time, chewing time, digestibility of dry matter and organic matter compared with the control diet . According to the results mentioned , orange waste can be used up to 20% of the diet of ewes without any adverse effect on growth performance