Fiber

There is evidence that alpacas derive most of their glucose for energy from the deamination of amino acids. Consequently, they may have an insufficient supply of amino acids to meet their requirements for fibre growth. To optimise fibre production, it may be necessary to supply alpacas with supplemental protein to meet their requirement for extra amino acids. In this study, we examined if the proportion of rumen-degradable dietary protein (RDP) to undegradable dietary protein (UDP) from canola meal influenced the fibre growth of alpacas. We hypothesised that alpacas fed at maintenance a diet containing canola meal protein high in UDP would produce more fibre and spend less time urinating than peers fed a similar amount of canola meal protein with a low proportion of UDP. Four groups of eight alpacas were fed diets with the following ratios of UDP : RDP: 0 : 100, 30 : 70, 60 : 40 or 100 : 0 from canola meal protein. The fibre growth of the animals was measured over 2 months and the behaviour of the animals in the two extreme groups (0 and 100% UDP) was measured over 5 days. The alpacas fed the 0% UDP diet produced fibre of finer diameter than the alpacas fed diets containing higher levels of UDP (P = 0.039) and the 0% UDP group also spent more time urinating (P = 0.027). This result suggests that alpacas may have a limited ability to recycle nitrogen to the fermentative chambers of their stomach when fed a diet low in UDP. Consequently, microbial protein synthesis in the fermentative chambers may have limited the supply of amino acids available to the alpacas. more »

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of dietary protein intake after a period of weight loss on the wool components of staple strength for sheep with a history of low or high staple strength (18.0 vs 34 Nlktex). After being fed to lose 15% of their liveweight over 10 weeks, sheep within each staple strength group were assigned in equal numbers to either a low or high protein diet designed to re-gain initial liveweight in 8 weeks. Liveweight, feed intakes and the growth, fibre diameter and fibre length characteristics of wool were measured at regular intervals. After the weight loss and growth regimes were imposed there was no difference in staple strength between the low and high staple strength groups (14.4 and 14.9 Nt ktex, respectively). However, coefficient of variation (CV) of fibre diameter remained significantly different between staple strength groups. Wool growth rate at the time of diet change was the only significant component of wool growth and fibre measurements that was significantly correlated with staple strength. Supplying a high protein diet after a period of weight loss increased wool growth. This changed the position of break along the staple and increased the fibre diameter at the point of break from 13.0 to 13.9 J.1m without affecting staple strength. It also increased fibre diameter and mean fibre length growth rate. The low staple strength group had a significantly higher CV of fibre length than the high staple strength group. Fibre length growth rate to fibre diameter ratio was stable over time in the high staple strength phenotype but declined with time in the low staple strength line. The results suggest that large weight losses will reduce the difference in staple strength between animals with a history of large difference in staple strength. Rate of wool growth after the point of break did not influence this staple strength outcome. more »