Fasting heat production of Muzaffarnagari sheep
Chandramoni
*, C.M. Tiwari
1, S.B. Jadhao
2, M.Y. Khan
Energy Metabolism and Respiration Calorimetry Laboratory, Animal Nutrition Division, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar 243 122 UP, India
Accepted 23 August 1999
Abstract
Twelve adult Muzaffarnagari rams (mean weight 41.42.09) were used to study fasting heat production (FHP) using open circuit respiration calorimetry. After a maintenance level of feeding for 60, sheep were fasted for three days and later subjected to gaseous exchange studies for 72±96 h. Mean oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide and methane production (l/d) and urinary nitrogen excretion (g/d) values for sheep were 187.9, 130.4, 0.346 and 2.94, respectively. Mean fasting heat production of sheep was 54.1 kcal/kgW0.75per day and feeding rations with different roughage to concentrate ratio at maintenance level prior to fasting had no effect on FHP.#2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Muzaffarnagari sheep; Fasting heat production; Metabolic body size
1. Intoduction
The energy expended in the fasting animal is repre-sented by the fasting heat production. Determination of fasting heat production on non-producing adult animals makes the basis for calculation of minimum quantity of net energy, which must be supplied to the animal to keep it in energy equilibrium. The heat produced by the animal is measured directly in the respiration chamber or it can be obtained by one of the methods of indirect calorimetry. Measurement of FHP provides a useful basis of reference for other phases of
energy metabolism. Metabolisable energy (ME) feed-ing standard uses FHP as the base to which is added ME for productive functions.
The heat production is affected by many physical and biological factors besides the description (breed, age, sex, etc.) of animal per se. Although, reports on the FHP of many sheep are available (Table 2), the studies on energetics (including FHP) of Muzaffarna-gari sheep which is one of the sturdy and meat type breed of sheep found in this area are rare and restricted to conventional evaluation approach (Ali et al., 1979). Since the Muzaffarnagari sheep is one of the important animal resource in this area, calorimetric studies were conducted on this breed of sheep using the respiration calorimatry facillity which is presently available only at this institute in the country. As a part of multiple investigations on energy balances (Chandramoni et al., 1999a,b), FHP of this Muzaffarnagari sheep was determined and compared with available reports.
*Corresponding author. Qr. 11, Road 9, Bihar Veterinary
College, Patna 800014, India.
1Present address: Department of Animal Nutrition, Rajiv Gandhi College of Veterinary and animal Sciences, Kurumbapeth Pondi-cherry 605 009, India.
2Central Institute of Fisheries Education, 7 Bungalows, Versova, Mumbai 400 061, India.
2. Materials and methods
Twelve healthy adult uncastrated male Muzaffar-nagari sheep were assigned to three treatment groups in completely randomised design where four rams in each group were fed rations with three different rough-age to concentrate ratio (92:8, 50:50, 30:70) at main-tenance level (NRC, 1985) for 60 days. Oat hay was the roughage source in all the rations. Chemical composition of the hay and concentrate is given else-where (Chandramoni et al., 1999a). Sheep were trained for respiration calorimetry studies. Before actually measuring gaseous exchange, sheep were adapted to respiration chamber for a period of four days. One sheep at a time kept in metabolic crate inside respiration chamber was subjected to three days of fasting. Details of respiration chamber and calibra-tion procedures have been described elsewhere (Khan and Joshi, 1983). Temperature of respiration chamber was maintained at 20±258C with relative humidity of about 65%. After 72 h of fasting, gaseous exchange was recorded for 24 h. Water was available throughout the entire period of fasting. Analysis of ingoing and outgoing air for oxygen was done by duel type para-magnetic oxygen analyser (Servomex Taylor model OAT 184). The concentration of carbon dioxide was determined by absorption in potassium hydroxide using modi®ed Sonden apparatus with 100 ml burette. Methane analysis was done by infra-red analyser (Analytical Development Company Hoddesdon, Eng-land, model 300). The ¯ow rate was measured using a ¯ow meter (Arthur H. Thomas, Philadelphia, Amer-ican Meter Co) The dry and wet-bulb temperature of the air coming out of the chamber was recorded using dual type temperature indicator (Decibel Instruments, Chandigarh, India, Serial no. B/1833). For the mea-surement of atmospheric pressure, an electroic device (Appleby and Ireland S/N 252730) as well as barom-eter were available. The representative samples of the in and outgoing air from the respiration chamber were collected separately into two Douglas bags with the help of special sampling device (Charles Austen Pumps, Surrey, UK) at the ¯ow rate of 3 l/m. The volumes of these gases were standardized at standard temperature and pressure. Urinary nitrogen voided during 72±96 h was analysed by Kjeldahl's method. FHP was calculated using Brouwer (1965) equation. The data were analysed using the analysis of variance
technique for completely randomised design (Snede-cor and Cochran, 1967).
3. Results and discussion
Results on gaseous exchange, urinary nitrogen and FHP are presented in Table 1. Feeding rations with different roughage to concentrate (R:C) ratio at main-tenance for 60 days to sheep led to signi®cant (P< 0.05) increase in total body weight, oxygen consumption and total heat production on 50R:50C and 30R:70C than on 92R:8C. However, former two groups did not differ in this respect. When expressed in relation to metabolic body weight (kg W0.75), the gaseous exchange and FHP did not differ (P> 0.05) on this dietary regimen. The mean oxygen consumption was 187 1/d whereas carbon dioxide and methane productions were 130.4 and 0.346 1/d, respectively. Mean value of N excreted in urine was 2.94 g/d. Respiratory quotient was 0.700.004 indicating that three days fasting was suf®cient to achieve the abso-lute state of fasting, i.e., post absorptive state. RQ is an index of intermediary metabolism and its values close to 0.7 indicates predominance of fat being utilized as the body fuel. The mean FHP was 54.1 kcal/kgW0.75
per day.
The mean urinary N (UN) excretion in Muzaffana-gari sheep (180.8 mg/kgW0.75per day) was about 50% higher than of indigenous Granadina goats (119 mg/kg
meat producing characteristics. The differences in protein turnover rate associated with varying degree of wool/hair or body growth leads to differences in urinary N excretion (McDonald et al., 1988).
The FHP values of different sheep are presented in Table 2. The differences in the body weight on three dietary regimens could not in¯uence FHP. We (Tiwari et al., 2000) have earlier reported that the FHP (kcal/ kgW0.75per day) of growing Murrah buffalo calves was not in¯uenced with increase of mean body weight from 76 to 101.3 to 235.5. Mac Rae (1987) reported decreasing trend in FHP with increasing body weight (100±345 kg) of growing steers. The protein accretion rate (stage of growth) may be same, so, it is unlikely to observe any effect on FHP. The value reported by Joshi (1973) and Khan et al. (1988) was about 11% higher than the present study. However, the ®gure agrees with
that reported by Blaxter (1962) and Graham (1967). McNiven (1984) has stated that FHP/kgW0.75is not affected by plane of nutrition prior to fasting and our ®nding agree with his report. Though the sheep were fed on different roughage to concentrate ratio contain-ing ration, plane of nutrition was about the same (i.e. maintenance level). Although, different biological and physical factors affects energy expenditure, differ-ences in reported FHP by various workers may be prominently due to differences in breed, age, sex and physiological status.
Regression of fasting heat production on body weight (W) yielded the following equation: FHP (kcal/kg)335.7W13.2,n12,r0.90.
The positive intercept in the equation indicates that Muzaffarnagari sheep utilise endogenous body reserve for maintenance with an associated heat loss.
Ef®-Table 1
Gaseous exchange, urinary nitrogen and fasting heat production (FHP) of Muzaffarnagari sheep
Animal no.
Live Weight (Wkg)
kgW0.75 Oxygen used (l/d)
kcal kcal/kgW0.75
GroupI
1 42.75 16.75 188.2 130.0 0.241 2.37 883.4 52.8 0.69
2 34.25 14.16 171.4 118.3 0.381 1.66 802.0 56.6 0.69
3 34.75 14.31 174.8 117.6 0.322 3.57 811.6 56.7 0.67
4 25.75 11.43 130.0 90.9 0.382 1.86 608.8 53.3 0.70
Mean 34.4a 14.16a 166.1a 114.2 0.331 2.36 776.4a 54.9 0.69
SE 3.47 1.09 12.57 8.27 0.033 0.429 58.76 1.04 0.006
GroupII
5 42.75 16.72 188.1 133.5 0.367 3.39 882.3 52.7 0.71
6 47.75 18.16 211.3 145.8 0.415 4.62 985.0 54.2 0.69
7 40.25 16.00 190.2 137.6 0.390 2.36 896.7 56.1 0.72
8 43.25 16.87 188.0 131.6 0.388 3.93 878.9 52.1 0.70
Mean 43.5 16.94 194.4 137.1 0.390 3.57 910.7 53.8 0.70
SE 1.56 0.46 5.66 3.15 0.98 0.477 25.06 0.89 0.006
GroupIII
9 52.75 19.57 204.8 144.7 0.323 4.67 958.7 49.0 0.71
10 46.25 17.74 206.3 142.3 0.364 1.58 965.8 54.5 0.69
11 47.20 18.02 203.8 142.1 0.209 3.10 955.0 53.0 0.70
12 39.00 15.61 188.0 130.6 0.376 2.19 880.1 56.4 0.69
Mean 46.3 17.74 200.7 139.9 0.318 2.89 939.9 53.2 0.70
SE 2.82 0.81 4.28 3.16 0.038 0.672 20.06 1.57 0.005
P <0.05 <0.05 <0.05 NS NS NS <0.05 NS NS
Grand 41.40 16.27 187.1 130.4 0.346 2.94 878.0 54.1 0.70
mean 2.09 0.63 6.29 4.48 0.018 0.31 29.09 0.73 0.004
SE
ciency of utilisation of body energy reserve for main-tenance is 86.8%. The ®gure is similar for an ef®-ciency value of 84% for milk production (ARC, 1980). To describe FHP in Muzaffarnagari sheep suitable exponent to body weight based on twelve observations was deduced by power regression. It was FHP (kcal/ d)78 W0.65 (r0.96). Thus, FHP can be better described by exponential power 0.65 to body weight (W). The exponent was nearly equal to that (0.64) calculated from observations of Singh et al. (1995) for Chegu goats. The exponent contradicts generally used ®gure of 0.75 as a power of body weight to describe metabolic body size. The exponent is related to the body weight (size) of animal. As the animal size decreases the exponent approaches to unity. It is also related to the content of the fat in the animal body. When expressed in relation to fat free mass, the exponent is unity. Graham et al. (1974) stated that 89% of the variance of the basal metabolic rate was accounted for in the body weight term (W0.75).
4. Conclusion
The results of the present study indicated that fasting heat production of Muzaffarnagari sheep is 54.1 kcal/kgW0.75per day, which is slightly less than earlier reports on other sheep.
References
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Table 2
Fasting heat production (FHP) of some animals
Author Description of animal FHP (kcal/kgW0.75per day)
Brody (1945) Interspecies mean 70.0
Blaxter (1961) Sheep 48.4
Blaxter (1961) Sheep 57.3
Blaxter (1962) Sheep wether 45.0
Blaxter (1962) Sheep 55.0
Blaxter and Wainman (1964) Cheviot wether 58.1
Suffolk wether 57.9
Cross wether 55.4
Black face wether 58.0
Graham (1967) Merino wether (5±7 year age) 57.0
Merino lamb 100±104
Joshi (1973) Ram 60.7
ARC (1980) Ewes 62.1
McNiven (1984) Sheep (ram) 74.0
Khan et al. (1988) Sheep 60.6
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