Intake in cattle of a ground switchgrass and alfalfa hay mixture blended with various levels of sucrose or citric acid

Effects of the natural sweetener rebaudioside A on intake, nutrient digestion, rumen fermentation, and blood biochemical parameters in adult goats during summer

The effects of dietary rebaudioside A inclusion on feed intake, digestion of nutrients, rumen fermentation, and blood biochemical parameters of goats were evaluated in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square study. Nine adult goats during summer were fed a basal forage/concentrate-based diet and the forage was chopped rice straw. The three dietary treatments were 0, 350, and 700 mg rebaudioside A per kg chopped rice straw on a DM basis. No significant improvement was observed in dry matter intake (DMI) of forage and diet among treatments. Nutrient digestibility of DM and organic matter (OM) showed a significant trend (p < .10) across groups. Rebaudioside A inclusion significantly (p < .01) increased the concentration of total volatile fatty acids in the rumen, however, there were no differences in concentration of ruminal ammonia, and molar proportions of acetate, propionate, and butyrate. About blood metabolites, increasing rebaudioside A in the diet caused a quadratic response in glucose and total protein, and albumin concentrations. Under the conditions of this study, supplementation with rebaudioside A at 350 and 700 mg/kg forage did not improve consumption of rice straw-based diet in adult goats in summer. However, the responses in digestibility, rumen fermentation, and blood metabolites appear to indicate the potential of rebaudioside A as a bio-active substance in goats.

Effects of Dietary Stevioside Supplementation on Feed Intake, Digestion, Ruminal Fermentation, and Blood Metabolites of Goats

Simple Summary

This study evaluated the effects of stevioside, a natural sweetener that is an extract of Stevia, on feed intake and feeding behavior of goats. The results demonstrated that the consumption of forage was improved after supplementation with stevioside. Supplementation of stevioside resulted in improved total diet consumption of goats. These results are useful for ruminant producers to use natural sweeteners to regulate the intakes of animals.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary inclusion of stevioside on feed intake, feeding behavior, nutrient digestion, rumen fermentation, and serum biochemical parameters in goats. Nine male Xiangdong black goats (21.8 ± 1.5 kg of body weight) were used in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square. All goats were fed a basal diet including concentrate and forage (chopped rice straw). The three treatments were 0, 400, or 800 mg stevioside per kg chopped rice straw on a dry matter (DM) basis. Dry matter intake of forage and total diet linearly increased (p = 0.03 and p = 0.04) with increasing stevioside in the diet. There was no effect (p > 0.05) of stevioside inclusion in the diets on eating time, rumination time, or total mastication time for the goats. Total volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration in the rumen responded quadratically (p < 0.01), decreasing from 0 to 400 mg/kg stevioside inclusion and increasing thereafter. The inclusion of steviosid in the diets promoted a quadratic increase in the apparent total tract digestibilities of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (p = 0.02) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) (p = 0.01). Based on the results of this experiment, it could be concluded that supplementing goat diets with stevioside at 400 mg/kg to 800 mg/kg forage (about 270 to 541 mg/kg diet) resulted in increased dry intake of forage and total diet, suggesting that stevioside has positive potential as a feed additive to improve feed intake.