الفهرس 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chemical composition of date palm leavesOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
T was carried out at the Department of Animal Production, Experimental farm, Faculty of Agriculture, New Valley University in cooperation with Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University to evaluate the Productive performance of (Farafra) lambs fed rations containing date palm leaves with or without direct-fed microbial supplementation. The First Part: A Feeding trial was conducted to study the effect of feeding ration containing date palm leaves with or without direct-fed microbial supplementation on feed intake, growth rate, feed conversion ratio, some serum constituents and carcass characteristics. Twenty four Farafar lamb averaged 29.5 ± 1.25 kg body weight and 5- 6 months of age were used in this study. The animals were divided randomly into four groups (6 animals each), according to their average live body weight. The experimental groups included, group 1, was considered as control and fed a diet consisting of wheat straw and concentrate mixture. group 2, fed crushed hay palm leave and concentrate mixture. group 3, fed crushed hay palm leave and concentrate mixture contain 2gm from the media (Bacillus subtilus and Phanerochaete chrysosporium). While group 4, fed crushed hay palm leave and concentrate mixture contain 4 gm from the media (Bacillus subtilus and Phanerochaete chrysosporium). The animal’s requirements for CP and TDN were calculated according to NRC (1985). All lambs of four groups were fed 60% of their requirements as concentrate mixture while wheat straw or crushed hay palm leave were given ad libitum. The quantity of concentrate mixture was adjusted every month according to change in body weight. The experimental period lasted for 105 days. Animals were weighed two successive days every two weeks before morning feeding. Body weight was averaged to the nearest 0.1 kg. Blood samples were collected monthly from the jugular vein of each lamb. Three animals from each group were slaughtered at the end of the experimental period of 105 days and then carcass characteristics were evaluated. Also, meat samples were taken from the eye muscle of the best rib cut (9th, 10th, and 11th rib) was taken for proximate analysis according to AOAC (2000).The Second Part: Include four digestibility trials, which were carried out using three adult rams for each trial to determine the digestibility coefficients and feeding value for all experimental diets. The obtained results could be summarized as the following:- 1- Chemical composition of date palm leaves .
The date palm leaves tended to be higher on DM, OM, CP, CF and EE than wheat straw. However, the content date palm leaves from ash was lower than wheat straw, while NFE content is close for the two sources.2- Effect of supplement direct-fed microbial to date palm leaves rations on lambs performance Daily gain The average daily gain was not significant in lambs fed on date palm leaves with or without supplemented direct fed microbial. The average daily gain was higher in lambs fed on date palm leaves with or without supplement direct-fed microbial than control diets. Feed intake The daily total DM intake of lambs fed rations containing date palm leaves with or without direct-fed microbial was not significantly lower than those fed control ration 1346.94, 1338.85, 1321.63 and 1535.25 for T1, T2, T3 and control, respectively.Feed conversion ratio Feed conversion ratio expressed as g DMI /g gain for all groups fed rations containing date palm leaves with or without DFM were insignificantly differed compared with control group. Also, DM intake per unit of gain was improved with supplement direct fed microbial at rate 4g (T3) and 2g (T2) when compared with un-supplemented (T1) and control group (8.62, 9.38, 9.98 and 11.45, respectively). Effect of feeding ration containing date palm leaves with or without direct-fed microbial supplementation on blood metabolites of lambs: The average values of serum total protein and globulin for lambs fed diets containing date palm leaves with 4g direct-fed microbial were significantly (P<0.05) higher than other groups.The cholesterol concentration in serum not affected by experimental rations but it tended to be lower in rations containing date palm leaves with or without direct-fed microbial supplementation (T1 and T3) than control group. The serum urea concentration was significantly (P<0.05) higher in lambs fed rations containing date palm leaves (T1) than supplemented group (T3) and control group (24.03 vs. 20.94 and 21.54 mg/dl), respectively.The average values of AST in blood serum were significantly (P<0.05) higher in T2 than T3 and control groups. Also, all rations containing date palm leaves with or without direct-fed microbial supplementation were significantly (P<0.05) higher in ALT value than control group.
4- Effect of supplement direct-fed microbial to palm leaves rations on nutrients digestibility coefficients:
A- Nutrients digestibility coefficients The nutrients digestibility coefficients were not significantly differed among groups. But, The nutrients digestibility coefficient of palm leaves diet (T1) was lower as compared with control diet except the digestibility coefficient of crude fiber and ether extract. Moreover, supplementation direct fed microbial (DFM) to concentrate mixture at rate 4g/ head/ day (T3) of palm leaves diet improved in all nutrients digestibility as compared with T1 and T2 groups. Also, it was noticed that, the CF and CP tended to be lower in supplement direct-fed microbial at rate 2g/ head/ day to palm leaves ration (T2) as compared with T1 group.
B- Feeding value Nutritive values in term of total digestion nutrients (TDN) was improved in control group and ration containing date palm leaves with 4g/head direct-fed microbial supplemented (DFM) as compared with non supplement group and supplement 2g DFM.
4- Effect of supplement direct-fed microbial to date palm leaves rations on carcass characteristics.There were no significant differences between groups of slaughter weight. However, the hot carcass was higher in group fed ration containing date palm leaves with 2gm DFM (T2) than other groups. The dressing percentages of groups fed diets contains date palm leaves with or without supplement direct fed microbial tended to be higher than control group.
• The overall mean of edible parts and non-edible parts were not significantly affected with supplementation with DFM to date palm leaves rations except the fat of tail and all fat weights, which they were significantly (P<0.05) higher in group fed diet content date palm leaves without DFM supplementation than other groups. • The carcass left side weight and their meat cuts were not significantly differed among groups. However, the left side cuts weights for groups fed rations contains date palm leaves with or without supplement direct fed microbial tended to be heavier than control groups The average weights of 3 ribs (9th , 10th , and 11th) had higher weight percentages by about 26.47 %, 23.53 %, 14.71% for lambs fed T1, T3 and T2 rations than control group, respectively. Also, there were no significant differences among groups in the best rib physically dissected components (9th, 10th, and 11th). However, the groups fed on rations contain date palm leaves with or without supplement DFM tended to be heavier in meat than control group (230, 220 and 210 vs. 190 g) for T3, T1, T2 and control group, respectively• The chemical analysis of longissimus muscle showed that feeding rations contain date palm leaves with or without supplemented DFM did not significantly affect the longissimus muscle composition.5- Effect of feeding rations containing date palm leaves with or without DFM on economic efficiency of lambs.The cost of roughage per head per day, total cost of daily ration, the feed cost for one kg weight gain and feed cost for total gain were significantly (P<0.05) lower in groups fed on rations containing date palm leaves with or without DFM than control group. Feed lambs on date palm leaves ration without supplement DFM decreased the cost of ration and improved the cost of total gain as compared with control ration and other palm leaves rations supplemented with DFM. CONCLUSION from the present results, it can be concluded that using date palm leaves without or with direct fed microbial in the rations of sheep led to positive effect on (growth performance, digestibility coefficients and carcass characteristic) without adverse effect on blood metabolites. In addition, wheat straw can be replacement by date palm leaves with or without direct fed microbial as non-traditional feed source in the rations of sheep.Using date palm leaves in the animal rations and the improvement of nutrition value requires further studies.