Energy Supplementation Productivity and Quality of Cattle Meat

Vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, contain highly unsaturated fatty acid and they have been widely used to supplement the cattle, poultry and pig’s feeds. Soybean oil contains polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), such as linoleic acid, oleic acid and linolenic acid that are beneficial to animals¹.

Supplementation of the vegetable oil in feed has been proven beneficial for ruminant. However, its effectiveness is limited due to the negative effect of PUFA on rumen digestion. Typically, PUFA undergoes many alterations inside the rumen and can cause a negative impact on rumen fermentation, reduce crude fiber digestibility and lead to dry matter consumption².

The negative impacts of PUFA in the rumen digestion process are the underlying reason to control the bio-hydrogenation of the PUFA to maximize vegetable oil supplemented for ruminant ration. Fat protection with calcium soap method may depress PUFA bio-hydrogenation process in the rumen, increase ether extract (EE) digestibility in the post-rumen digestion and increase PUFA in the body tissue of beef cattle³. In addition to chemical methods, plant poly-phenolic compounds, such as tannin can be used to suppress the negative effects and PUFA bio-hydrogenation process inside the rumen⁴. One of the local feed ingredients that contain tannin is the cashew nuts.

Based on above facts a rumen fluid-based in vitro research needed to be carried out to assess the supplementation effectiveness of soybean oil, calcium soap and cashew fruit flour on ruminant ration’s ferment-ability, microbial population and nutrient digestibility using rumen fluid of Bali cattle.

Therefore in a new study researchers explored energy sources from a combination of soybean oil calcium soap (SOCS) and cashew fruit flour (CFF) as PUFA for ruminant livestock ration. The goal of the study is to assist researchers to uncover the critical roles of soybean oil calcium soap and tannin compound in cashew fruit flour, which assist in improving the efficiency of PUFA and energy supplementation for increasing the productivity and quality of cattle meat for human consumption⁵.

For the study purpose the ration treatments were divided from R1 to R4. The measured variables were pH, NH3-N, total volatile fatty acids and total gas production (ferment-ability characteristics), total bacteria and protozoa (microbial populations), dry matter and organic matter digestibility.

It was observed that the supplementation of 5% SOCS combined with CFF at the level of 10 and 20% in the concentrate ration had no significant effect on pH level and total gas production, but the treatments significantly decreased NH3-N concentration and total VFA production.

It was concluded from the study results that the addition of 5% SOCS and 10% CFF in ration resulted in better ammonia concentrations, total VFA production and total gas production compared to the other treatments without any negative effect on the microbial population.

Keywords:

Polyunsaturated fatty acid, biohydrogenation, calcium soap, cashew fruit, tannin, total gas production, total VFA production, microbial population, ammonia concentrations, total bacteria and protozoa, soybean oil calcium soap.

References:

1. Jokic, S., R. Sudar, S. Svilovic, S. Vidovic, M. Bilic, D. Velic and V. Jurkovic, 2013. Fatty acid composition of oil obtained from soybeans by extraction with supercritical carbon dioxide. Czech J. Food Sci., 31: 116-125.
2. Carriquiry, M., W.J. Weber, L.H. Baumgard and B.A. Crooker, 2008. In vitrobiohydrogenation of four dietary fats. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol., 141: 339-355.
3. Voigt, J., S. Kuhla, K. Gaafar, M. Derno and H. Hagemeister, 2006. Digestibility of rumen protected fat in cattle. Slovak J. Anim. Sci., 39: 16-19.
4. Lourenço, M., E. Ramos-Morales and R.J. Wallace, 2010. The role of microbes in rumen lipolysis and biohydrogenation and their manipulation. Animal, 4: 1008-1023.
5. Bain A., I.K.G. Wiryawan, D.A. Astuti, C. Arman and S. Suharti, 2017. Fermentability and Nutrient Digestibility of Ration Supplemented with Soybean Oil Calcium Soap and Cashew Fruit Flour. Pak. J. Nutr., 16: 945-953.