Body Composition of Thin-Tailed Lambs Under Different Feeding Levels
Body Composition of Thin-Tailed Lambs Under Different Feeding Levels
Edy Rianto1, Nadlirotun Luthfi2*, Retno Adiwinarti1, Agung Purnomoadi1
ABSTRACT
A study was carried out to investigate the effect of feeding level on body composition of thin-tailed lambs. Twenty one thin-tailed lambs (aged 3 months) were allocated into a completely randomised design with 3 treatments of feeding level, namely T1= 4% body weight (BW), T2 = 5.5% BW and T3 = ad libitum. The diet was given in pellet form, containing 61.79% total digestible nutrients (TDN) and 13.74% crude protein (CP). The lambs were raised from an initial body weight of 11 kg until their body weight reached 25 kg. The parameters measured were body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and body composition . The results showed that the lambs of T3 had the highest (P<0.01) BWG (235.17 g/d) as compared to that of T2 (138.17 g/d) and T1 (81.08 g/d). Feeding level T3 resulted in the lowest (P<0.01) FCR (6.37), while that of T1 and T2 did not have significant difference in FCR (averaged 8.21). There was no significant effect (P>0.05) of feeding levels on body composition. However, the body composition changed as the body weight increased (P<0.01). The higher the body weight, the lower the body water content and the higher the body fat content, while body protein content was relatively constant from 11 to 25 kg body weight. The average of body water, body protein and body fat content of the lambs at 11 kg were 58.63%, 10.38% and 20.59, respectively. Meanwhile, the average body water, body protein and body fat content of the lambs at 25 kg were 58.04%, 13.26% and 21.42%, respectively. It was concluded that the feeding level did not affect the body composition of the lambs at the same body weight. However, the body composition of the lambs varied with the body weight.
Keywords | Body composition, Feed conversion rasio, Feeding level, Lamb, Live weight gai
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