Nutrient utilisation and serum biochemical profile of adult dromedary camels fed oat straw and groundnut haulms

The study was conducted to explore the feasibility of incorporation of oat straw in the diet of camels. Five adult male camels (726.00 kg B.Wt., 8–10 years) were fed sole roughage diet of dry chaffed oat (Avena sativa) straw in phase I to estimate its nutritional worth followed by feeding of oat straw and groundnut (Arachis hypogea) haulms in 1:1 ratio in second phase II to study the impact on nutrient digestibility and intake. In phase III, the camels were switched to sole roughage ration of groundnut haulms. Average DM intake kg/d or DMI kg/100 kg body weight was minimum (3.83 or 0.54) in camels fed sole oat straw ration which improved (P<0.05) on supplementation in second phase (6.80 or 0.98) and was maximum in third phase (8.70 or 1.20) in camels given only groundnut haulms. The digestibility of DM, OM, CP was similar in phase II and III but significantly (P<0.01) higher than in phase I. Because of supplementation effect of better nutritional valued groundnut haulms, the intake of DM, DCP and ME increased significantly (P<0.01) from phase I to phase III. Similar serum glucose, total protein in 3 phases but higher serum urea level (P<0.01) was observed in phase I followed by phase II and lower in phase III. The results indicated poor nutritional value of oat straw and the need of its pre-treatment to increase its digestibility for incorporation in the animal diet.