Effects of graded levels of dietary chromium-yeast on rumen and blood metabolites, feed digestibility, and performance of goats

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary supplementation of Chromium-yeast minerals on consumption, feed digestibility, rumen and blood metabolites, Average Daily Gain (ADG) and body condition score (BCS). The research was conducted at Gunung Tugel Farm, Banyumas, Central Java, Indonesia. The material used was 24 male Jawarandu goats with an average initial weight of 25 ± 1.23 kg, individual cages, the feed given consisted of elephant grass silage and concentrate. The treatment feed contains chromium-yeast at levels of 0, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 mg/kg. The research method used was experimental using a completely randomized design. There were 4 treatments tested, namely T0 (70% concentrate + 30% elephant grass silage), T1 (70% concentrate + 30% elephant grass silage + 0.5 mg/kg chromium-yeast), T2 (70% concentrate + 30% elephant grass silage + 1 mg/kg chromium-yeast) and T3 (70% concentrate + 30% elephant grass silage + 1.5 mg/kg chromium-yeast). Each treatment was repeated 6 times so there were 24 trials. The further test used is polynomial orthogonal. The variables measured in this study were feed consumption, feed digestibility, rumen metabolite products, daily body weight gain and body condition score. The results of the analysis of variance showed that the treatment had a significant effect on dry matter and organic matter consumption, feed digestibility, rumen volatile fatty acids (VFA), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and blood glucose 3 h post-feeding, chromium-yeast levels, and had a very significant effect on ADG and BCS. In conclusion, chromium-yeast supplementation was able to improve goat performance with optimal levels ranging from 1.04–1.36 mg/kg of feed.