Abstract 622

ABDOULI Hedi, Ecole Superieure d'Agricuture Mateur, Tunisia

KRAIEM Khemais, Ecole Superieure d'Agricuture Mograne, Tunisia

Livestock Research for Rural Development 1990 2(2): 1-7.

Intake, digestion and feeding behaviour of four 200 kg one-humped camels fed long or chopped straw-based diets were determined in two 2X2 Latin Squares. Wheat straws were offered ad libitum while a concentrate containing 96 % wheat bran, 3 % mineral supplement and 1 % urea was restricted to 0.5 kg as fed per day.

Chopping the straw did not affect (P>.05) any of the investigated parameters. Mean straw intake was 2.36 kg DM/d, which represented 84.1 % of the total DM intake. The camels spent 39 % of their time ruminating, 29 % eating and 32 % resting. About 97 % of the eating activity occured during daytime versus 44.4 % for ruminating and 45 % for resting.

Apparent digestibilities of DM, OM, CP and CF were: 55, 58, 42 and 65 %, respectively.

It was concluded from comparison of these results with literature data on cattle and sheep that camel did not appear to digest more extensively poor quality roughages.