الفهرس 
Effect of zeolite supplementation on sheep performance fed urea-based dietOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of zeolite supplementation in sheep fed urea-based diet, on both in vitro and in vivo. The in vitro study was conducted, to evaluate the effect of two levels of zeolite supplement with urea on diet degradability, gas production (GP), pH and NH3-N production, to select the effective dose of zeolite, which could be applicable on in vivo through four diets as follow:
1- group (1): (Control diet): without urea or zeolite supplementation.
2- group (2): (U-BD): Control diet with a 68% replacement of the soya-N with urea-N.
3- group (3): (U-BD-Z2%): U-BD supplemented with 20g NZ- CPL/kg DM.
4- group (4): (U-BD-Z4%): U-BD supplemented with 40 g NZ- CPL/kg DM.
In vivo experiment was Conducted to evaluate the effect of zeolite supplementation on performance, ruminal fermentation, blood metabolites, digestibility, nitrogen balance and economic efficiency, it carried out from April to August 2018. The average temperature prevailing during the experimental period was 23 oC, where as it rose up during April to reach 33 degrees during August and the average humidity was 72%. Forty-five Barki lambs (average 30.62±4.54 kg of body weight (BW), 5-months-old) were housed in 3 treatments blocked based on BW into 3 subgroups for each treatment with a total of 9 pens (2.5×4) m2. All Pens diets were randomly assigned to one of the following treatments:
1- group (1): (Control diet): without urea or zeolite supplementation.
2- group (2): (U-BD): Control diet with a 68% replacement of the soya-N with urea-N.
3- group (3): (U-BD-Z2%): U-BD supplemented with 20g NZ- CPL/kg DM.
The basal diet was formulated to meet NRC (2007) nutrient requirements recommended for growing sheep. The growing experiment lasted for 120 days to determine the ADG, DMI, FCR. Rumen liquor blood samples were collected at 40,80,120 days before the morning feeding. At the end of the growing experiment, twelve grown animals were selected randomly for nutrients digestibility and N balance. Nine lambs (three for each treatment) were weighed after an 18 h fasting period and were slaughtered and then the carcass characteristics, texture parameters were assessed.