Effect of supplementation of indigenously prepared rumen protected fat on rumen fermentation in buffaloes

Abstract

Rumen protected fat (PF) i.e. calcium salts of long chain fatty acids (Ca-LCFA) was prepared by an indigenous method by treating rice bran fatty acid oil (RBO), a byproduct of the rice bran oil refinery industry and technical grade calcium hydroxide under specific conditions and evaluated for its supplemental effect on the rumen metabolism (fermentation pattern). In a 3×3 switch over design, 3 rumen fistulated adult male buffaloes (421.4±10.4 kg BW) were offered randomly a conventional concentrate mixture (control) or concentrate mixture (CM) supplemented with 300 g RBO (RBO300) or 300 g PF (PF300) along with 6.5 kg wheat straw (WS) and 10 kg green berseem daily (roughage: concentrate ratio 65:35). Rumen liquor was collected at 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 h post-feeding for 3 consecutive days, pooled and analyzed for rumen metabolites. The mean rumen pH in PF300 (6.77) was lower than the RBO300 group (6.93), but was similar to the control (6.90). The TVFA concentration (meq/dl) was the highest in PF300 (8.08) and the lowest in RBO300 (6.44). There was no difference in the TN (78.82 to 83.21; mg/dl), NPN (44.99 to 49.47; mg/dl), NH3–N (9.80 to 11.34; mg/dl), total bacterial count (5.10 to 6.90; ×1011/ml) and total protozoal count (2.12 to 2.31; ×104/ml) among the groups. However, the TCA-N (mg/dl) in PF300 (38.22) was higher than the control (32.57) and RBO300 (31.03) groups. Thus, supplementation of indigenously prepared PF (Ca-LCFA) up to 300 g/day had no adverse effect on the rumen metabolism in adult buffaloes fed WS based diets with roughage: concentrate ratio of 65:35.