The effect of processing sesame straw with low steam pressure and chemical materials on digestibility and fermentation, protozoa population, rumination and some blood parameters of Arabi sheep

This research was conducted to investigate the effect of processing sesame straw with low steam pressure, sulfuric acid and enzyme mixture on digestibility and ruminal fermentation, protozoa population, rumination and some blood parameters of Arabi sheep. Twelve sheep were fed with control diet (without sesame straw), diet containing sesame straw processed with 2.4 % sulfuric acid and low steam pressure at 130 °C for 120 minutes and 3 gr/kg DM enzyme, diet containing sesame straw processed by sulfuric acid and enzyme and diet containing sesame straw processed with water. The dry matter and organic matter intake, daily gain, feed conversion, apparent digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, NDF and ADF did not differ between treatments.The processing did not affect ammonia nitrogen, pH, and rumen protozoa species of sheep. Chewing, rumination and resting times were different between treatments and the greatest rumination time (491.67 minutes per day) was for processing with acid and enzyme (P