Efficacy of Internal Markers for Predicting Nutrient Digestibility in Dairy Cows Renuka B.C., Singh K. Chandrapal, Prabhu T.M.* Department of Animal Nutrition University of Agricultural Sciences Bangalore-560 024, India. *Reprint request: Dr. T.M. Prabhu, Animal Nutrition and Management Section, Agrcultural Research Station, Ponnampet-571 216, Coorg, Karnataka, India; Tel: +91-8274-249156.
Abstract In order to evaluate the efficacy of different markers viz. acid detergent lignin (ADL), alkaline peroxide lignin (APL), acid detergent fibre ash (ADFA) and acid insoluble ash (AIA) to predict the digestibility of nutrients, three digestion trials involving ‘total collection’ and by ‘marker’ were conducted simultaneously using 18 lactating cows in three periods. The average recovery values of ADL, APL, ADFA and AIA were 78.3, 78.8, 93.7 and 104 per cent, respectively. The recoveries of ADL and APL were much lower (P≤0.05) than the comparable recovery values of ADFA and AIA. But the digestibility of DM, OM, NDF and ADF was similar with high correlation, among the values obtained by total collection and ADFA marker. However, the digestibility of these nutrients differed significantly (P≤0.05) with low correlation coefficient when comparison was made between the values obtained by total collection and ADL and APL markers. ADFA could, therefore, be a suitable marker for predicting nutrient digestibility in dairy cows in place of laborious and time consuming total collection method. Top Key words Prediction, Nutrient digestibility, Marker, Cows. Top |