Effect of Processing Recycled Poultry Bedding with Tannin Extract of Pomegranate Peel on Its Intestinal- Ruminal Digestibility

In order to study the effect of processing recycled poultry bedding (RPB) with tannin extracted from pomegranate peel (PPE) on the its ruminal and intestinal digestibility, an experiment was conducted as completely randomized design in Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan. Experimental treatments consisted of zero (control treatment), 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35% PPE in RPB. For each treatment, five repeat were considered. Rumen degradability and nutrients intestinal digestion were measured using nylon bags and three-step digestion methods, respectively. The results related to the percentage and trend of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) digestion as well as degradability parameters of DM and CP showed that increasing level of PPE in RPB reduced rapidly degradable fraction (a) of DM and CP and increased their slowly degradable fraction (b) (P=0.001). Constant of degradation rate and degradability potential were not affected by different levels of PPE. Highest and lowest effective degradability (ED) of DM and CP were observed in RPB containing 5 and 15% PPE, respectively (P=0.001). Highest and lowest percentage of rumen degradable protein (RDP) was observed in control treatment and RPB containing 35% PPE respectively (P=0.0013). The highest and lowest percentage of intestinal protein digestion were observed in RPB containing 25 and 35% PPE respectively (P=0.0021). RBP containing 25% PPE increased rumen un-degradable protein (RUP) (P=0.0072) and total CP digestibility (P=0.0051) compared to control diet. In general, results of nylon bag and three-step digestibility studies showed that using 25% PPE was optimum level for processing RPB due to reduction of crude protein degradability and increasing the flow of protein to the intestine.