Effects of urea supplementation on ruminal fermentation characteristics, nutrient intake, digestibility, and performance in sheep: A meta-analysis

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Wahyono T., Sholikin M. M., KONCA Y., Obitsu T., Sadarman S., Jayanegara A.

Veterinary World, cilt.15, sa.2, ss.331-340, 2022 (ESCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 15 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.331-340
  • Dergi Adı: Veterinary World
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, CAB Abstracts, EMBASE, Veterinary Science Database, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.331-340
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: meta-analysis, sheep, supplementation, urea, ALTERNATE-DAY SUPPLEMENTATION, PLASMA LEUCINE TURNOVER, PROTEIN-SYNTHESIS, NITROGEN-BALANCE, SOYBEAN-MEAL, DIGESTION, ENERGY, LEVEL, LAMBS, DIETS
  • Kayseri Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

Copyright: Wahyono, et al. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background and Aim: As a non-protein nitrogen source, urea is a popular, low cost, and easily obtained protein supplement. The objective of the present study was to perform a meta-analysis of the effects of urea supplementation on rumen fermentation and sheep performance. Materials and Methods: A total of 32 experiments from 21 articles were compiled into a dataset. The levels of dietary urea varied from 0 to 31 g/kg of dry matter (DM). Parameters observed were rumen fermentation product, nutrient intake, nutrient digestibility, and sheep performance. This dataset was analyzed using a mixed model methodology, with urea supplementation levels as fixed effects and the different experiments as random effects. Results: Increasing levels of urea were associated with increases (p=0.008) in rumen pH, butyrate (C4) production, and ammonia (NH3–N) concentration. Urea supplementation had minor effects on total volatile fatty acids (p=0.242), total protozoa (p=0.429), and the microbial N supply (p=0.619), but tended to increase methane production (CH4; p<0.001). Supplementation of urea increased the intake of dry matter (DM; p=0.004) and crude protein (CP; p=0.001). Digestibility parameters, such as DM digestibility (DMD) and CP digestibility (CPD), also increased (p<0.01) as a result of urea supplementation. Retained N (p=0.042) and N intake (p<0.001) were higher with increasing levels of urea supplementation. In terms of animal performance, supplementation of urea increased average daily gain (ADG; p=0.024), but decreased the hot carcass weight percentage (p=0.017). Conclusion: This meta-analysis reports the positive effects of urea supplementation on rumen fermentation products (i.e., pH, C4, and NH3–N), intake (DM, CP, and N), digestibility (DMD and CPD), and ADG in sheep.