Nutritional evaluation of passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) in apparent digestibility trial .2. Intake and digestibility coefficient of crude energy, ether extract and crude protein and nitrogen balance

Five adult sheep were submitted to five diets with different concentrations of passion fruit seeds (Passiflora edulis) in order to evaluate the nutritional value and the optimum level for ruminant rations. The apparent digestibility of passion fruit seed, fed together with molasses grass hay was studied in a random block design. The experimental treatment consisted of five diets: 1 (hay); 2 (hay + 8%, seeds); 3 (hay + 16% seeds); 4 (hay + 24% seeds); and 5 (hay + 32% seeds). The highest voluntary intake of dry matter (53.5g/kg(0,75)) was observed with 8.8% of passion fruit seeds in the diet; however, it did not result in a higher intake of metabolizable energy (89.0kcal/kg(0,75)). The level of seeds in the diet neither changed crude protein digestibility, which was high (70%), nor the nitrogen balance, which was positive in all treatments (6.77g/day). The digestibility coefficients of ether extract were significantly different (40.9; 63.7; 59.0; 70.9 and 84.9% in treatments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively), and highest in diet 5 (11.9% oil) as the proportion of seed increased in the diet.