Effect of feeding protected and unprotected protein on the growth rate and body composition of goats

Twenty kids were divided in 4 groups of each. Each group was fed on different diet as follows: (i) Control (untreated groundnut cake), (ii) Formaldehyde treated ration, (iii) Heat treatment, and (iv) Tannic acid treatment. The effect of protection of feed protein was studied in terms of dry matter intake, feed utilization, nitrogen balances, feed conversion efficiency and body composition. No significant difference was observed in dry matter intake and the digestibility coefficients of various feed nutrients in different groups. However, the formaldehyde treatment ration fed group showed significantly higher (P < 0.05) balance for nitrogen. The average daily gain in body weights were 49.06 +- 2.7, 71.92 +- 3.95, 52.20 +- 1.63 and 55.75 +- 2.25g in control, formaldehyde, heat and tannic acid treatment group, respectively. The difference in daily gain was highly significant (P < 0.01) between different treatments. The average values of TOH percent space of body weight were 77.59 +- 1.26, 76.85 +- 0.41, 77.15 +- 0.70 and 77.00 +- 1.58 in control, formaldehyde, heat and tannic acid treatment group, respectively. The average values of fat percentage in control, formaldehyde, heat and tannic acid groups were 8.62 +- 1.32, 9.32 +- 0.41, 9.08 +- 0.71 and 9.14 +- 1.66 respectively. The corresponding values for protein contents were 15.82 +- 0.17, 15.68 +- 0.07, 15.97 +- 0.10 and 15.75 +- 0.22, respectively. No significant difference in TOH space or body composition was noted due to treatment. (auth.)