Essential Oils in the Diet of Crossbred (½ Angus vs. ½ Nellore) Bulls Finished in Feedlot on Animal Performance, Feed Efficiency and Carcass Characteristics

Dayane Rivaroli, Rodolpho do Prado, Mariana Ornaghi, Camila Mottin, Tatiane Ramos, Ana Barrado, André Jorge and Ivanor do Prado

Journal of Agricultural Science, 2017, vol. 9, issue 10, 205

Abstract: This experiment was carried out to evaluate the animal performance, feed efficiency and carcass characteristics of 27 crossbred bulls (½ Angus vs. ½ Nellore), finished in feedlot for 120 days, with the addition of distinct levels of essential oils in the diets. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized trial and animals were distributed into three treatments- control (CON), addition of 500 mg/kg of DM/animal/day of a mix of essential oils (E500), and addition of 1000 mg/kg of DM/animal/day of a mix of essential oils (E1000). The essential oils supplemented to the diets were based on a combination of vegetal extracts from- oregano, garlic, lemon, rosemary, thymus, eucalyptus and sweet orange. The bulls had an average age of 12±2 months and weight of 243.4±6.8 kg when the trial started. The roughage and concentrate ratio was 10% and 90%, respectively. The inclusion of essentials oils in the diets did not affect final body weight, average daily gain, and feed intake, but there was a tendency for improved feed efficiency for the E500 treatment. The ADG ranged from 1.55 to 1.70. Average DMI and feed conversion were 7.07 kg/day and 4.31, respectively. Essentials oil levels did not affect the carcass characteristics. More studies are needed to elucidate the synergism of combinations of essential oils in the rumen.

Date: 2017
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