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The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of increasing doses: 0 (control), 0.20, 0.40, 0.60, 0.80 and 1.00 % DM of an exogenous fibrolytic enzymes (EFE) cocktail preparation on in vitro gas production (GP), nutrient degradability and fermentation characteristics of oats straw based Total Mixed Ration (TMR) with 60:40 roughage to concentrate ratio using sheep rumen liquor. The chemical composition of all the feed ingredients used for preparation of the experimental TMR (containing 16.63% crude protein and 90.51% organic matter) were within the normal ranges. Increasing the incorporation level of enzyme cocktail linearly as well as quadratically increased net GP, metabolisable energy content, short chain fatty acid concentrations and microbial crude protein production up to 0.60% DM level (L3) with no additional improvement at further higher levels. There were significant improvements in degradability of dry matter, organic matter and neutral detergent fibre up to the enzyme dose of 0.60% DM (L3) with constant values thereafter. Fermentation characteristics response to varying incorporation doses of EFE cocktail also revealed improvements up to 0.60% DM level (L3) with no effect on non-protein nitrogen contents. It is recommended that EFE cocktail incorporation dose of 0.60% DM to be used for efficient utilisation of oats straw based complete feed; however, this requires further testing by in vivo studies.

The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the palatability, growth and economics of the silkworm pupae meal (SWPM) feeding, replacing fish meal (FM) in cattle calves. Crossbred cattle calves (15) around one-month of age were selected for the study and were divided into three equal groups (n=5) viz., T0 (100% FM), T1 (75% FM: 25% SWPM) and T2 (50% FM: 50% SWPM). To estimate the growth parameters fortnightly, a growth trial of 90 days was conducted, and a digestibility trial of 7 days was conducted at the end of experiment. The results revealed non-significant differences between the experimental groups in DMI, OMI, periodical body weight, body weight gain, average daily gain (ADG) (g/d), feed conversion ratio (FCR), feed conversion efficiency (FCE) (%), digestibility coefficients of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and crude protein (CP). Significant differences were observed in digestibility coefficients of crude fibre (CF), ether extract (EE) and nitrogen free extract (NFE) between the groups. The digestible nutrients intake revealed significant difference only in CPI (g/d) with higher values in T0 followed by T1 and T2, but non-significant differences were observed in DDMI, DCPI and TDNI. The economics of feeding showed a decrease in the feed cost and feeding cost per kg body weight gain with increased inclusion of SWPM. Thus, it is concluded that costly FM can be replaced upto 50% level by SWPM without any adverse effect on feed intake, growth and nutrient utilization of crossbred cattle calves.