Energy metabolism and performance of local sheep fed on ammoniated rice straw and concentrate supplemented with waru and bamboo leaf meals

This study evaluated the effects of waru (Hibiscus tiliaceus) leaf meal (WLM) and bamboo (Gigantochloa apus) leaf meal (BLM) supplementation on energy metabolism and performance of local sheep fed on ammoniated rice straw and concentrate. Sixteen male local sheep aged 12–18 months with initial average body weight of 27.1 ± 2.11 kg (7.78% coefficient of variation) were completely randomized according to a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) to receive one of the following treatments: T0 (ammoniated rice straw + concentrate feed); T1 (T0 + 2.49 g WLM); T2 (T0 + 1.87 g WLM + 0.33 g BLM); and T3 (T0 + 1.25 g WLM + 0.65 g BLM). The concentrate was provided at 3% of live weight, and ammoniated rice straw was available on a controlled ad libitum. Analysis of variance indicated that WLM and BLM supplementation significantly increased digestible energy (DE), metabolizable energy (ME), energy retention (ER), ER to EI efficiency, ER to DE efficiency, average daily gain (ADG), and consumption rate (CR), while significantly decreasing the feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P<0.01). However, the treatments had no significant effect (P>0.05) on dry matter intake (DMI) and energy intake (EI). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with 1.87 g of WLM and 0.33 g of BLM per kg concentrate was more effective than the other combinations in improving energy metabolism and performance of local sheep.