Nutrient Digestibility and Metabolism in Lambs Fed Added Perloline

Abstract

Fourteen lambs were utilized in a metabolism trial to observe the influence of added isolated perloline on nutrient digestibility and metabolism. The lambs were fed a control diet or the same diet containing .5% of perloline monohydrochloride added at the time of feeding. The perloline monohydrochloride was isolated from 1,090 kg of Kenwell tall fescue. In the perloline treatment group, apparent crude protein digestibility (P< .05) and cellulose digestibility (P< .08) coefficients were lower than those of the control group of lambs. Apparent digestibility coefficients for crude fiber, nitrogen-free extract, ether extract and ash also tended to be lower in the perloline group. Urine volume and urinary nitrogen tended to be greater in the perloline treatment group. Nitrogen retained per day was .94 g for the control and .44 g for the perloline-fed lambs. Plasma urea-N tended to be lower in the lambs fed perloline (12.27 mg/100 ml) than in the controls (12.75 mg/100 ml). Ruminal acetic, isovaleric and valeric acids were lower and propionic acid higher in the perloline-fed lambs. Body temperature of the perloline-fed lambs was higher than that of the control group on days 10 and 11 of the metabolism trial.