The effect of perroraly added chestnut tannins on daily gain and composition of faeces in sheep and goats

Abstract

The effect of extracted tannins from chestnut wood (Castanea sativa Mill.), which were added to the diet for sheep and goats was studied. Preparation (Tanin, Sevnica) contained 74 % mainly hydrolysable tannins. 21 young sheep and 10 goats, which grazed at the Karst region, were included into the experiment. Every three days the amount of 0.5 g preparation kg^–1 body weight was applied to thirteen young sheep and five goats. Eight young sheep and five goats were observed as a control group. All sheep and goats grazed at the same paddocks on the same pasture. The experiment lasted 68 days. The average daily gain of the experimental group of sheep was 37 g day^–1 and 18 g day^–1 of the control group of sheep. The differences in daily gains of the young sheep were not statistically significant. In the first period (35 days), the experimental group of sheep had less dry matter (189–217 g kg^–1 vs. 195–229 g kg^–1), more crude protein (177–157 g kg^–1 DM vs. 170–142 g kg^–1 DM) and more tannins (0.77–0.61 % in DM vs. 0.73–0.52 % in DM) in faeces than the control group of sheep. The correlation between the tannins and crude protein content in the faeces of sheep was highly statistically significant (r = 0.92, P < 0.05). Results demonstrate the effect of added chestnut tannins on the composition of faeces, what is probably due to the place of digestion of the ingested nutritive substances. Both groups of goats lost body weight (–79 g day^–1). In the faeces of goats there were more dry matter (192–297 g kg^–1) and less crude protein (108–144 g kg^–1 DM) and tannins (0.24–0.48 % in DM) than in the faeces of sheep.