Apparent digestibility of preruminant kids fed with cow milk or soybean protein

Abstract

Ten 15-day-old male kids (crossbred Saanen or Anglonubian x Brazilian native kids) with an initial age of 15 days and an initial average weight of 4.67±0.14 kg were used to study the apparent digestibility (AD). The kids were fed twice daily either goat milk (GM), cow milk (CM) or milk replacers containing cow milk (47.1%), texturised soybean protein (24.3%) and glucose (28.6%) (SP). Four kids (GM) and three kids (CM and TSP) were randomly assigned to each diet. Goat milk was replaced gradualy by the experimental diets from 15^th day (two days of transition) which were given until the 43^rd day (200 g/kg of LW per day). AD of dry matter (DM), nitrogen (N), organic matter (OM) and phosphorus (P) were higher (P < 0.05) in the GM diet than with CM and SP diets. Also the AD of DM, N, OM, fat and P were higher (P < 0.05) in the CM diet than with the SP diet. On the other hand, the AD of fat and nitrogen free extract (NFE) in the GM diet were the same as that of the corresponding CM diet. Also the AD of NFE, ash and Ca did not differ between CM and SP diets. N retention by kids fed GM diet was higher (P < 0.05) when compared with kids fed CM or SP diets, but the differences were not significant between kids fed with these two diets.