Rumen parakeratosis

Table IV. Influence of Diet on Rumen Parakeratosis and Condemned Livera...

The results of these feeding trials with lambs and yearling steers show oak sawdust to be a useful roughage substitute for use in rations constituted primarily of concentrates. Rumen parakeratosis in cattle was not prevented when the ration contained 2.5% of oak sawdust, but its incidence was materially reduced when 10% of sawdust was used. Adding 10% of sawdust to the ration for sheep and cattle did not adversely affect feed efficiency. Therefore, there was a net improvement in feed efficiency in terms of the concentrate portion of the ration. 

For cattle in this test, 15% oak sawdust in the ration apparently was too much. Also, rumen parakeratosis was not prevented by this level of sawdust. In the trial reported above, a ration containing 10% of sawdust lowered the incidence of rumen parakeratosis and improved feed efficiency over an all-concentrate diet. Therefore, these data seem to indicate that sawdust can be added to steer rations with favorable results up to a level of 10% of the mixture. Perhaps fully to control rumen parakeratosis some other dietary factor will be required along with sawdust. 

Results of the sheep trial are presented in Table II. The pen of lambs fed basal plus 2.5% oak sawdust made greater daily gain than the other pens and used the least feed per unit of gain. These differences, however, were not statistically significant. Including either oak sawdust or oyster shell appeared to improve animal performance over the basal (all-concentrate) ration. When the lambs were slaughtered, the rumens from all treatment groups were free of parakeratosis. 

Lambs fed the sawdust-containing ration had an average daily gain equal to lambs fed the coastal-containing ration and feed efficiency was similar, Table X. No palatability difference was observed and there was no sorting of the sawdust. The lamb trial was conducted during the summer and high ambient temperature adversely affected performance of both pens of lambs. Examination of the rumens showed no incidence of parakeratosis. 

Baby pigs and kids from the nickel-deficient groups developed a scaly crusty skin similar to that seen in parakeratosis, and lower hematocrit and hemoglobin levels. Nickel deficiency also induces a decreased urease activity in the rumen (Hennig et al. 1978,... 

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