Influence of eliminating rumen ciliates on growth, nutrient intake, its utilization and rumen fermentation pattern in goats fed straw-based diet

The effect of defaunation on growth rate of kids, nutrient utilization including rumen fermentation pattern was studied by allocating 8 male kids of Barbari breed in 2 groups of 4 each for 130 days. Apart from growth rate and rumen fermentation studies a metabolism trial was also conducted in mid-experimental period to study the nutrient utilization. Reduced ammonia nitrogen concentration (7.00 +/- 1.52 to 5.16 +/- 0.48 mg/100 ml SRL) and increased TVFA production (2.98 +/- 0.56 to 3.58 +/- 0.30 meq/litre) were deserved in faunated and defaunated animals. Marginal (not significant at P > 0.05) reduction in digestibility or organic nutrients in defaunated animals could not influence the growth rate and feed conversion efficiency adversely. Apparently the growth rate and feed conversion efficiency of defaunated animals improved over faunated ones. Thus, defaunation technique could be utilized to improve the productivity of growing goats under low protein diets.