The effect of animal fat on sheep's diet digestibility, degradability and rumen fermentation process

The effect of replacement of maize grain by animal fat in a diet with high level of acid detergent fibre (27%) on diet digestibility, rumen fermentati on and energy content of the diet was evaluated. Six fistulated wether shee p were used in a 2 x 2 Latin square experimental design in three replicates . Forage : concentrate ratio in the diets was 47.7 : 52.3 and animal fat co ntributed to concentrates by 7%, replacing maize on a weight basis. Digesti bility of ether extract was increased (P <0.001) by 13.1% for the diet with fat compared to the diet without fat, while digestibility coefficients of the other nutrients were unaffected. The energy content of the diet with fa t increased by 3.4% (P <0.05). The inclusion of animal fat to sheep diet in creased significantly the molar proportion of propionate (P <0.05) by 10.7% and the crude protein degradability (P <0.001) by 4%, and decreased the mo lar proportion of butyrate by 6.1% (P <0.05), the acetate to propionate rat io (P <0.01) by 13.2%, and the protozoa counts by 32% (P <0.001). The results showed that animal fat can replace cereal grains in sheep diets up to the level of 5% without any problem on rumen fermentation process.