Feed intake and growth performance
Table 2 presents the results for supplementing different levels of EE on feed intake, growth performance and digestibility in lambs during the overall period. Supplementing different levels of EE in lambs fed whole barley with a protein supplement did not influence the DM intake. Similar to results in the experiment,
Miller et al., (2008) reported no change in the DM intake when xylanase/endoglucanase enzyme was added to the barley grain-based diet of growing lambs. Also, the present results are consistent with the results of
McAllister et al., (2000), who reported that DM and OM consumption in lambs was not affected by the addition of mixed activity EE products to barley grain-based rations. However, growth performance results obtained from this research don’t agree with the findings of
Vallejo et al., (2016), which reported a significant effect of low and moderate rates of xylanase on feed intake in sheep but not on high concentration. A previous study also reported that the increase in feed consumption with low EE application reflects the increase in ruminal fiber digestion and digesta passage rate
(Beauchemin et al., 2003). Moreover, Ahmed (2016) showed that feeding a high dose of EE had a beneficial effect on feed intake in lambs. Our research did not record substantive differences in the fiber digestibility of responses between control and treatment. As indicated by
Ran et al., (2019), this situation may have been due to ad libitum feeding of lambs.
In this experiment, it is not surprising that there is no effect of EE supplementation on ADG. Adding EE to the diet containing whole barley and protein supplement did not increase both DM intake and nutrient digestibility and therefore did not provide more fermentable carbohydrates and available energy for synthesizing microbial protein in the rumen
(Voelker Linton and Allen, 2009). Similarly, some previous studies have noted that EE supplementation did not affect ADG and FCR of lambs
(Muwalla et al., 2007; Awawdeh and Obeidat, 2011), goats
(Lu et al., 2015) and feedlot steers
(He et al., 2014). This study observed no effect of EE application on growth performance and FCR. In contrast to the current study,
Lopez-Aguirre et al., (2016) showed that the growth rate was improved by adding enzyme in Pelibuey lambs. Also,
Togtokhbayar et al., (2017) and
Salem et al., (2015) assessed the effect of different levels of enzyme supplementation on the growth performance of lambs and clarified that the digestibility increased, thereby increasing ruminal energy and/or nutrient availability and improving lamb performance.
Digestibility
In the current study, there was expectation improval
fiber degradation of the outer layers of whole barley EE supplementation. However, contrary to our hypothesis, there were no differences in digestibilities of DM, OM, CP and NDF between diets including control or FE supplement (Table 2). Concerning digestibility, similar results are recorded by
Miller et al., (2008) and
Awawdeh and Obeidat, (2011) who concluded that the use of EE had no effect on the digestibility of barley-based diets by lambs. Contrary to the present results, previous studies
(Riberio et al., 2019; Chung et al., 2012) reported that adding EE in a barley based diet improved DM, OM, NDF and ADF digestibility in lambs. Some earlier studies
(Beauchemin et al., 1997; Krause et al., 1988) reported that when feedlot cattle was fed a diet containing 4.9% barley silage and 91.6% barley and was supplemented with EE, DM and starch digestibility was improved, which may be related to an increased digestion of the hull in the rumen, thereby allowing accessibility of ruminal microorganism to the protein matrix in the endosperm, but this was not observed in the present study. The factors contributing to the lack of response to increasing enzyme levels on digestibility in the current study are probably complex. It is possible that ruminal cellulase from bacterial origin masked the effect of adding EE in lamb fed whole barley-based diets
(Askar et al., 2006). Moreover, the activity and dose of adding EE cannot increase the hydrolysis of fibre to serve as a substrate for ruminal cellulolytic bacteria
(Morgavi et al., 2000). Further, suggests that ruminal fiber hydrolyzing capacity might be sufficiently high in lamb fed whole barley-based diets. On the other hand, the proportion of the potentially digestible NDF of the hull cementing to the outer layer of the grain is likely to be low as was found (about 14%) by
Grove et al., (2003). Differences between present study and other studies could be related to dose and enzyme activity as well as the type of diet
(Ran et al., 2019).
Rumen fermentation
The supply of increasing different levels of EE did not affect ruminal pH, NH3-N and ruminal total VFA (Table 3). However, as expected, ruminal pH ranged from 6.35-6.37 for all groups, which were within a normal range acceptable for fiber digestion, normal rumen fermentation and microbial synthesis
(Van Soest, 1994). Possible reasons for this may be associated with higher chewing, rumination time and salivation of lamb fed whole-barley based diet. Regarding the EE supplementation, the results of the present study were in line with the observation of
Yuangklang et al., (2017), who concluded that the addition of EE which consisted of xylanase and glucanase did not affect ruminal pH in growing goats fed rice straw-based diet. However, the increase of ruminal pH value due to the benefical impact of EE on the degree of degradation of NDF of feeding ration were reported by
Kholif et al., (2017) after EE supplementation in Nubian goats and by
Elenin et al., (2016) after supplementation of cellulase in lambs. On the other hand, a decrease in ruminal pH was observed with supplemental cellulase and xylanase in growing goats by
Lu et al., (2015) because of higher energy release by fibrolytic enzyme supplementation.
The results in this study indicate a lack of effects of enzymatic supplementation on NH3-N utilization, which is in line with findings of other authors
(Abid et al., 2020; Ribeiro et al., 2018). In contrast, some exogenous enzyme products have reported a decrease in the measured NH3-N production
(Kholif et al., 2017). It reported that this decreased NH3-N level was a result of the incorporation of NH3-N into microbial protein synthesis due to greater ADF and NDF digestibility in animals fed diets added with enzymes.
Yuangklang et al., (2017) related the improvement in NH3-N concentration to liberated by enzyme formulations some nitrogen that was bound to insoluble fiber.
Some enzyme products decreased total VFA of lambs, whereas many other studies observed no effects.
He et al., (2014) and
Peters et al., (2010) found no changed TVFA production using exogenous fibrolytic enzyme supplement added to the diet as used in the present study. Also,
Miller et al., (2008) reported no effect on total VFA concentration in the ruminal fluid adding fibrolytic enzymes to barley-based lamb diets. However, enzyme treatment of diets fed to lactating goats or sheep (40% berseem clover and 60% concentrate or 30% maize stover and 70% concentrate, respectively) had a positive effect on total VFA production in the study by
Kholif et al., (2007) and
Vallejo et al., (2016). Moreover,
Yuangklang et al., (2017) reported that the hydrolysis of fiber by enzymes had provided more substrate for microbial production of total VFA and thus increased the concentration of total VFA in the rumen. Also, an increase in ruminal total VFA concentration was reported by
Silva et al., (2016). They reported that EE supplementation ensured greater access of bacteria to feed particles. In the current study, EE had not affected the rate of fiber digestion of whole barley-based diet. This may be the reason why we did not find any change in total VFA concentrations.