USING OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL TREATMENTS TO IMPROVE THE NUTRITION VALUE OF TREATED AND UNTREATED WHEAT STRAW AND ITS EFFECT ON ANIMAL PERFORMANCE AND DIGESTIBILITY OF AWASSI SHEEP

Abstract

Twenty Awassi intact male lambs were used in fattening and digestibility experiment (in vivo) to study the effect of using chemical and biological treated wheat straw. The animals were fed in individual pans concentrate diet (3% of live body weight) with four chemical and biological treatment of straw ad libitum for 91 days. The results showed that urea treated straw, NaOH –treated straw and fungi-treated straw were significantly difference (p< 0.01) in straw consumed especially for NaOH–treated straw as compared with other treatments, total body weight, daily gain and feed conversion ratio of animals as compared with untreated wheat straw. The digestibility of chemicals and biological treated wheat straw treatments were significantly increased (p<0.01) for dry matter, organic matter, ether extract, crude fiber and nitrogen free extract and significantly increased (p<0.05) for crude protein as compared with untreated wheat straw fed to lambs.