Efeito de cactos ( Opuntia ficus - indica e Nopalea cochenillifera ) sobre o desempenho produtivo de cruzas de raças locais (Pafuri e Landim)

Abstract

The aim of the work was to evaluate the effect of different levels of inclusion of cacti (Opuntia ficus indica and Nopaleia cochenillifera) on the performance of goats from local crossbreed breeds. Twenty and seven (27) animals (10 uncastrated lashes and 17 lashes of approximately four months of age and average weight of 12.17 ± 0. 23 kg) were distributed in a design completely randomized and divided into three groups composed of nine animals housed in individual pens, constituting nine replications. Each group was provided with a diet containing different level (0%, 25%, 50%) of cactus inclusion. The experiment lasted 160 days, during which data was collected to determine weight gain (WG), consumption of dry matter (CMS), food conversion (CA) and is to verify the existence of significant differences or not, between treatments, ANOVA was used, applying the test Tukey test for comparing means at 5% significance. The results reflect the patterns found in the literature, with a significant effect (P<0.05) on the parameter weight gain in treatment 1 (T1) in relation to other diets (T2, T3), for the parameter dry matter intake (DMI) there was no significant effect (P>0.05) between the diets (T1, T2, T3) despite the tendency to reduce voluntary dry matter consumption in diets with inclusion of cacti (T2, T3), for the food conversion parameter there was no effect significant (P>0.05) between diets (T1, T2, T3). It was concluded that cactus inclusion levels of 0%, 25% and 50% in the goat diet associated with forage and concentrate do not compromise negatively affect physiological activities nor cause any gastrointestinal disturbances, in However, for reasons of economic viability, diet 2 proved to be more suitable.