Effect of Dietary Forage/Concentrate Ratio on Nutrient Digestion and Energy and Protein Metabolism in Adult Donkeys

SIMPLE SUMMARY: In recent decades, the donkey husbandry industry has developed rapidly, catering for their use in pharmaceutical, meat and milk production. However, compared with horses and other livestock, animal feeding studies have not been addressed to understand how nutrient digestion and metabolism are limited in donkeys. In this paper, the effect of the forage/concentrate ratio (F/C) in three experimental diets (low-fiber ration, medium-fiber ration and high-fiber ration) was investigated on N and energy balance using the total feces and urine collected method in a 3 × 3 Latin square experimental design. Decreasing the F/C significantly promoted protein digestibility and decreased fiber digestibility; increasing the F/C remarkably decreased N retention through the greater increase in N excretion in urine; decreasing the F/C linearly increased the conversion efficiency of digestible energy to metabolizable energy. ABSTRACT: The domestic donkey is a unique equid species with specific nutritional requirements; however, limited feeding studies have been addressed so far to understand nutrient digestion and metabolism in donkeys. In the present study, six adult female Xinjiang donkeys (180 ± 10 kg live weight) were applied in a 3 × 3 Latin square design to investigate the effect of the forage/concentrate ratio (F/C) in three experimental diets on N and energy balance within 12 weeks. Rice straw and alfalfa hay were chosen as forage ingredients, and the diets included the following: (1) a high-fiber (HF) ration (F/C = 80:20), (2) a medium-fiber (MF) ration (F/C = 55:45), and (3) a low-fiber (LF) ration (35:45). After the fixed amount of diets were daily allowed to the animals, total feces and urine were collected to determine total tract digestibility, N and energy balance. As a result, dry matter intake did not differ among the three diet groups. Decreasing the dietary F/C significantly promoted protein digestibility and decreased fiber digestibility. The N and energy balance analysis showed that increasing the F/C remarkably (p < 0.01) decreased N retention through the increase in N excretion in urine, and the highest N loss relative to N intake was observed in MF. Meanwhile, decreasing the F/C linearly increased the conversion efficiency of digestible energy to metabolizable energy. Taken together, the results obtained in the present study implicated that the dietary forage level should not be less than 55% to maintain greater N and energy utilization in feeding practice, otherwise, a donkey’s N utilization might be highly discounted.