Comportamento ingestivo de cordeiros em confinamento com adição de quitosana na dieta

Abstract

The ingestive behavior of production animals is an important issue in animal nutrition, since from the detection of changes adjustments can be made to better meet the needs of the animal. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of chitosan on the ingestive behavior of lambs submitted to the diet containing rehydrated corn silage. The experiment was carried out in experimental confinement of small ruminants of the Federal University of Grande Dourados (FUGD), Dourados-MS. Were used 24 lambs, Texel x Suffolk crossbred, 12 whole males and 12 females, with mean age of 3.5 months and initial mean body weight of 21.29 kilos, which were allocated in randomized blocks according to weight and in individual stalls of 2 m² of area. The animals were kept in a confinement system, and 16 days of adaptation to the premises preceded the experimental period, which was 69 days distributed in four experimental periods of 14 days and one of 13 days. The voluminous:concentrate ratio of the diet was 15:85. The diet provided at 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. was composed of moist corn silage (66%), mineral protein mixture (19%) in which 15% soybean meal and 4% mineral salt, and hay of Cynodon spp. (15%). Experimental treatments were: Control (supply of 10g/day/animal mineral protein mixture) and Chitosan, 3g/day/animal along with 10g of mineral protein mixture, supply topdress before the first feed. The behavioral evaluations occurred on the 12th day of each experimental period, using ethological records with individual observation every 10 minutes, from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm, of the following behaviors: standing ruminant, lying ruminant, standing idle, lying, interacting, sleeping, ingesting food, number of goings to the drinking fountain, urinating, defecating. The data were submitted to analysis of variance by the MIXED command of the SAS statistical package, version 9.0, with a significance level of 5%. PROC UNIVARIATE was used to verify the normality of residues and homogeneity of variances. The means were conducted by the LSMEANS and analyzed by the DUNNETT test adjusted by PROC MIXED. The variables evaluated did not present a significant difference (P> 0.05) as a function of the diet received by the animals. This the diet with chitosan in the feeding of confined sheep did not affect the time of the ingestive behavior activities, in addition to the feeding efficiencies of the nutrients.