الفهرس 
Azolla as a livestock feedOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 124 |  |  |
| | | from | 124 | | |
Abstract
The present study was carried out at the animal farm station and nutrition laboratory, Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agricultural, and Menoufia University in order to evaluate azolla plant (Azolla pinnata) by comparing with clover hay in ruminant nutrition (first experiment) and investigate the effect of azolla in different levels with corn silage on growth performance, digestibility, nutritive value, rumen parameters, blood biochemical and hematological criteria of Barki lambs (second experiment). The chopped fresh corn plants (without cobs) were prepared with different replacement levels of Azolla pinnata 0, 5, 10 and 15% for 45 days as incubation period to be the four experimental diets, obtained results from experiment one illustrated that:
1. Dry matter contents were almost similar between sun dried azolla and clover hay, while the content of OM, CP and EE were higher in sun dried azolla (84.16, 26.93 and 3.80%, respectively) than in clover hay (81.75, 14.48 and 2.70%, respectively).
2. The content of CF % was lower in sun dried azolla (13.48) than in clover hay (24.82).
3. Chemical analysis showed that sun dried azolla is rich in CP content (26.93%), which exceeds the CP content of Clover hay (14.30).
4. Digestion coefficients for sun dried azolla were significantly (P<0.05) higher than Clover hay for DM and CP, but NFE was significantly (P<0.05) lower than clover hay (51.93 vs. 55.69%), while, CF did not differ significantly.
5. The nutritive values (DCP and TDN %) for sun dried azolla were significantly (P<0.05) higher (18.49 and 51.93%) than clover hay (7.70 and 46.55).
6. The N balance in animals fed sun dried azolla was significantly (P< 0.05) higher (19.14 g N/d) than for those fed clover hay (7.73 g N/d), which was 2.5 times higher.
7. Rumen characteristics (pH, VFA and NH3-N) started to be significantly (P<0.05) higher in animals fed sun dried azolla than in those fed clover hay after six hours of feeding.
8. Results in experiment two demonstrated that the value of silage pH was increased significantly (P<0.05) by adding azolla to fresh corn.
9. The percentage of OM, CF and NFE decreased (P<0.05) by adding azolla to fresh corn.
10. Fresh corn containing 15 and 10% azolla had higher (P<0.05) content of CP (9.81and 9.66%) comparing with diets containing 5% azolla (8.93%) and control diet (8.51%).
11. Silage pH value after ensiling decreased (P<0.05). The highest pH value was recorded in the control diet (3.96) and gradually decreased with addition of azolla at a rate of 5, 10 and 15% (3.85, 3.77 and 3.70, respectively).
12. Silage DM% decreased (P<0.05) with the addition of azolla (control: 31.41%, 5% azolla: 31.20%, 10% azolla: 29.87% and 15% azolla: 30.10%, respectively).
13. The highest value of fleig point was obtained in corn silage content 15% azolla (117.20) followed by in corn silage content 5 and 10% azolla (113.40 and 113.94, respectively) and the control one has the lowest value of fleig point (109.52).
14. Adding azolla by 10 and 15% in corn silage significantly (P<0.05) increased CP content (8.46 and 8.89%, respectively) compared to the control (7.94%) and corn silage with 5% azolla (7.60%). Thus, the rate of improvement in protein content reached 6.5% when adding 10% Azolla and 11.7% when adding 15% Azolla to corn silage.
15. Adding azolla by 5, 10 and 15% in corn silage significantly (P<0.05) decreased CF content (25.40, 24.60 and 25.22%, respectively) compared to the control (26.10%). While the content of OM, EE and NFE were not significantly differ
16. Silages lactic acid concentration increased (P<0.001) with Azolla 5%, azolla 10% and Azolla 15% being 18.61, 19.73 and 20.20 mg/g DM, respectively comparing with control (17.61 mg/g), but acetic acid followed opposite trend.
17. Total body gain (TBG) and average daily gain (ADG) were significantly improved in animals fed corn silage mixed with azolla at 10 and 15% (TBG: 10.76 and 10.98 kg; ADG: 119.6 and 121.9 g, respectively) than those fed corn silage or corn silage mixed with Azolla at 5% (TBG: 9.39 and 9.65 kg; ADG: 104.2 and 107.2 g, respectively)
18. Digestibility of most nutrients was improved when azolla was added to corn silage, especially at the azolla addition level of 10%.
19. The nutritive values represented as DCP and TDN% were improved (P<0.05) in corn silage treated with azolla at levels 10 and 15% (DCP: 6.14 and 6.11%; TDN: 67.65 and 61.75%, respectively).
20. Both BV and NQI values were improved (P<0.05) in corn silage mixed with azolla at levels 10 and 15% (BV: 34.31 and 29.93; NQI: 6.07 and 5.94, respectively). The corresponding values did not differ significantly between both corn silage and corn silage treated with 5% azolla.
21. The nitrogen balance significantly improved (P<0.05) in animals fed corn silage treated with azolla at levels of 10 and 15% (11.69 and 11.44, respectively) compared to those fed corn silage or corn silage treated with 5% azolla (7.32 and 8.52, respectively).
22. Rumen pH values were significantly (P<0.05) increased at three hours post feeding by Azolla pinnate treatment being 6.72, 6.83 and 6.77 for azolla 5%, 10 and 15% respectively comparing with control group.
23. Rumen total VFA was significantly higher (P<0.05) at 3, and 6 hr post feeding for azolla 10% diet being 24.19and 24.03 respectively than control, azolla 5% and azolla 15% diets.
24. Rumen NH3-N were significantly increased (P<0.01) among studied diets at 3, and 6 hr. post feeding as response to increase azolla level
25. Rumen NH3-N concentration within all the experimental diets increased post feeding to reach the highest level at 3h and decreased thereafter.
26. Hematological blood parameters did not show significant differences as affected by the experimental diets
27. Serum total protein and albumin recorded the highest values with azolla 10% (6.5 and 4.13) being higher significant (P<0.05) than those for azolla 15% (6.33 and 3.73), azolla 5% (5.90 and 3.37) and control (5.73 and 3.27).
28. Blood biochemical parameters were within the normal range indicating that silage treated with azolla did not have any adverse effect on neither liver nor kidney functions.