Effect of the coconut oil on the consumption, digestion of nutrients and methane production in sheep fed with forage and concentrate

Resumen

Four Pelibuey male sheep, with average liveweight of 25 kg ? 3.5 and a fistula in the rumen were used to study the effect of coconut oil on the consumption, nutrients digestion and methane production in sheep fed with low-quality forage and concentrate. A two treatment change design and two animals per treatment was applied. Pennisetum purpureum, clone Cuba CT-169, with 120 d of age was used as basal forage. The diets were formulated in forage: concentrate ratio of 50:50, with coconut oil in the concentrate (14 %) or without it. The consumption, apparent digestibility of the organic matter (ADOM) and methane production were determined. The tunnel method was used for measuring the methane. The results showed the diminishing effect of coconut oil in the ingestion (P < 0.001) of DM (3.03 and 2.39 % TP) and OM (0.93 and 0.63 % TP) for the treatments with or without coconut oil, respectively. The level used did not affect the ADOM. The methane production was reduced (P < 0.05) when using the coconut oil in the diet (18.73 and 12.16 L kg DM-1). The results showed the possibility of reducing the ruminal methane production by using coconut oil in
the diet at the expense of a diminishing of DM ingestion. The optimum levels for not affecting the animals? voluntary intake should
be established in further studies.
Key words: methanogenesis, coconut oil, ingestion, apparent digestibility, sheep.