Determination of physical characteristics, chemical composition and digestion coefficients of treated lemon pulp with Saccharomyces cerevisiae in goat diet

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of processing of lemon pulp with Saccharomyces cerevisiae on physical properties, chemical composition, digestion coefficients and blood parameters. Eight adult male Raeini goats were used in a 28-day period. The experimental design was a completely randomised design with two treatments and four replicates. The first 21days were for adaptation, and the last 7days were for collecting samples. The animals were housed in individual metabolic cages equipped with a urine-faeces separator and were fed with diet containing alfalfa hay (60%) and lemon pulp (40%) at the maintenance level. Collected data were subjected to analysis of completely randomised design. With diet containing processed lemon pulp, functional specific gravity, bulk density, soluble dry matter, percentage of crude protein, neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre and crude ash were significantly increased and water-holding capacity, insoluble dry matter, insoluble ash percentage of dry matter, organic matter, crude fat, non-fibrous carbohydrates and nitrogen-free extract were significantly decreased (p<0.05). Digestion coefficient of organic matter in dry matter and metabolisable energy were also decreased in treated lemon pulp (p<0.05). Compared with untreated lemon pulp, digestibility of crude protein and NDF was higher (p<0.05), but digestibility of crude fat was lower (p<0.05). In general, processing of lemon pulp with S.cerevisiae improved the physical characteristics and increased the percentage of crude protein and the digestion coefficients of protein and NDF.