fEEDl.OT PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS TRAITS OF ~OWING ONE·HUMPED CAMEl.S FED ON NON- CONVENTIONAL RATIONS. | ||||
Journal of Animal and Poultry Production | ||||
Article 8, Volume 29, Issue 12, December 2004, Page 6911-6923 PDF (3.97 MB) | ||||
Document Type: Original Article | ||||
DOI: 10.21608/jappmu.2004.239478 | ||||
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Authors | ||||
M. F. Shehata,1; K. Z. Kewan1; Safinaz M. Shawket1; A. M. Nour2 | ||||
1Animal Production and Poultry Division, Desert Research Center, Mataria, Cairo, Egypt. | ||||
2Department of Animal and Fish Production, Faculty of Agriculture (EI- Shattby), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt. | ||||
Abstract | ||||
Fifteen growing male one-humped camels (average body weight 250 kg) were used to study the effect of some non-conventional feedstuffs on their performance and carcass traits. Fresh range plants, i.e., Atrip/ex nummu/aria (AN) and/ or Acacia sa/igna (AS) and ensiled rice straw (ERS) were used as roughages. Both ground date stones and olive cakes were introduced as concentrate components in the formula of traditional concentrate mixture at the rates of 20 and 10 %, respectively. Camels were divided into five equal groups (3 camels each). The first control group were fed traditional concentrate mixture (TCM) and berseem hay (BH). The second group was fed adjusted concentrate mixture (ACM) and AN, the third group was fed ACM and AS, the fourth group was fed ACM and both AN and AS, while the fifth group was fed ACM and ERS. Average dry matter intake from rCM by control group was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the amount consumed from ACM by the other four groups. Daily dry matter intake from roughages differed significantly (p < 0.05) among the different groups. Average daily gain in camel body weight were 0.828, 0.525 0.719, 0.680 and 0.589, kg/head for the five groups, respectively. Slaughter and empty body weights, hot and chilled carcass weights did not differ significantly among the different camel groups. Results showed that feeding male camels on non- conventional rations of AN, AS, AN-AS and ERS, reduced the feeding costs required to produce one kg body weight gain compared to using the conventional ration. Among the non-conventional rations. Acacia sa/igna was the most efficient in reducing feeding cost. It was concluded that the use of ACM and edible parts of the halophytic plants in feeding growing camels is economically efficient for meat production under arid and semi-arid conditions. | ||||
Keywords | ||||
Camel; Growth; carcass traits; nOn-conventional rations | ||||
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