. 2022 Oct 26;9:1048409. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.1048409

Table 6.

Feed intake, nutrient digestibility, diet nutritive values and nitrogen (N) balance of adult Farafra rams fed with diets containing date palm leaves treated with different probiotics.

	Diet¹	SEM	P value
	Control	BAC	LAC	ZAD
Intake (g/d)	1622	1614	1618	1622	18.2	0.888
Nutrient digestibility (g digested/kg ingested)
Dry matter	547^c	590^a	557^c	577^b	10.7	0.021
Organic matter	601^c	650^a	639^ab	642^a	1.4	0.003
Crude protein	611^b	650^a	632^b	639^b	2.5	0.011
Ether extract	858	894	864	886	3.2	0.748
Nonstructural carbohydrates	679^b	742^a	741^a	737^a	3.6	0.012
Neutral detergent fiber	516^b	589^a	524^b	571^a	5.7	0.032
Nutritive values
Digestible crude protein	97.1^c	103.2^a	100.3^c	101.4^b	0.2	0.011
TDN (g/kg DM)₂	604^c	653^a	622^c	647^b	4.2	0.013
DE (Mcal/kg DM)²	2.66^c	2.88^a	2.74^c	2.85^b	0.031	0.010
ME (Mcal/kg DM)²	2.69^c	2.91^a	2.77^c	2.88^b	0.020	0.011
UFL (Mcal/kg DM)³	2.39^c	2.60^a	2.47^c	2.58^b	0.024	0.013
Nitrogen (N) utilization (g/day)
Total N intake	41.2	41	41.1	41.2	1.49	0.914
Fecal N	16.3^a	14.4^b	14.8^b	14.9^b	0.44	0.041
Urinary N					0.93	0.555
N balance	18.2^b	19.9^a	19.6^a	19.8^a	0.49	0.031

Means in the same row with different superscripts differ at P < 0.05. P-value is the observed significance level of the F-test for diet; SEM, standard error of the mean.

¹Diet: Control diet contained 700 g of concentrate feed mixture and 300 g of date palm leaves without additives or supplemented with Bacillofort (BAC treatment), Lacotpro (LAC treatment) or ZAD (ZAD treatment) probiotics.

²TDN = total digestible nutrients, DE = Digestible energy, ME = Metabolizable energy. All have been calculated according to NRC (26) equation.

³UFL = unité fourragère du lait (net energy requirements for lactation equivalent of 1 kg of standard air-dry barley) calculated according to INRA (27) equation.