Effects of sunflower oil supplementation on performance, nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation and blood metabolites in crossbred (Macheng Black x Boer) goats

Abstract

This study aims to determine the effects of sunflower oil supplementation on performance, nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation and blood metabolites in crossbred goats. Randomized complete block with sub sampling; with 3 treatments, 3 sub sampling and 4 experiment periods as blocks were conducted using 9 crossbred (Boer x Macheng Black) female goats with an initial body weight (BW) around 20.96±1.79 kg were used in our experiment. Three levels of sunflower oil supplementation (sunflower oil = S; 0, 33, and 66 g kg^-1 of dry matter (DM)) to commercial complete feed were used for the treatment arrangement.  Every experiment period was done in three weeks and rested one week before the next period at the individual cages. Nutrient digestibility (except ether extract (EE)), protozoa counts and ammonia-N (NH₃-N) concentration were decreased; molar proportions of volatile fatty acids (VFA) were changed; blood metabolites (except cholesterol) were not affected by sunflower oil supplementation. The inclusion of sunflower oil had no adverse effect on performance; thus improve dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain (ADG), feed efficiency (FE) which S33 was better than S0 and S66. In conclusion, the best result was sunflower oil supplementation 33 g kg^-1 of DM (S33); because compared with control, improve ADG (31.79%) and FE (15.32%)). Sunflower oil supplementation could improve performance by positively affecting the ruminal on rumen fermentation in crossbred (Boer x Macheng Black) female goats.