This study aims to provide possible utilization of sunflower head byproduct (SFH) as a feedstuff by implementing chemical pretreatments (4% sodium hydroxide (SFH_NaOH) or 4% urea (SFH_urea) and supplementation with either exogenous fibrolytic enzymes (EFE) or functional feed additive (FFA). The experimental EFE was a complex (1:1, v/v) of two enzyme products with high activity of β-1,3-1,4-glucanase and endo-1,4-β-D-xylanase and applied at 0 (SFH_out), 1, 2, 5, and 10 µL/ gdry matter, while FFA was a fermentation byproduct rich in cellulase and xylanase activities, applied at 0 (SFH_out), 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 mg/g DM. SFH_urea had the highest (p < 0.05) crude protein (CP) content compared to other SFH substrates. Linear enhancements (p < 0.05) in kinetics of gas production (GP), metabolizable energy (ME), organic matter digestibility (OMD) and total short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) concentrations were observed for all SFH substrates supplemented with EFE. The SFH_out had the highest (p < 0.05) potential GP, maximum rate (Rmax) of GP, ME, OMD and SCFAs. Supplementation of EFE was more pronounced than FFA in affecting the kinetic parameters of in vitro GP for all SFH substrates. SFH_out supplemented with EFE seems to be the most promising substrate to enhance microbial fermentation in vitro.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of supplementing a wheat straw-based diet with Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S.C.) on feed intake, nutrient digestibility, nitrogen balance, body weight and reproduction performance. The experiment was conducted on 14 Queue Fine de l’Ouest rams between 3 and 4 years of age (body weight (B.W.): 54.7 ± 2.03 kg; body condition score (B.C.S.): 3.5 ± 0.5), for 80 days during the breeding season. The rams were divided into two homogenous groups (n = 7), housed individually in floor pens, and allocated to two dietary treatments. The control group was offered a basal diet of 1 kg/d of wheat straw and 700 g of concentrate. The experimental group (yeast) received the same basal diet supplemented with 10 g of S.C./head/day. The results indicated that the S.C. supplementation had no significant effect on the animal’s body weight, volume and concentration of semen, dry matter intake, crude protein digestibility and nitrogen balance. Compared to the control group, the S.C. addition improved (p < 0.05) the digestibility of dry matter by 7.3%, organic matter by 11.9% and crude fiber by 24%. In addition, the mass motility score increased for the yeast group compared to the control (3.7 ± 0.24 vs. 1.9 ± 0.27, p < 0.05). The total number of dead and abnormal spermatozoa decreased for the yeast group in contrast to the control group (9.28 ± 0.95 vs. 26.8 ± 3.85% and 25.5 ± 3.33 vs. 59.2 ± 2.78%, respectively; p < 0.05). These results showed that adding S.C. to Queue Fine de l’Ouest ram’s diet during breeding season could improve nutrient digestibility and reproductive performance.

Two in vitro ruminal fermentation assays were conducted to study the effect of exogenous fibrolytic enzyme (EFE) supplementation on untreated and alkali treated oat straw. During the first experiment, five CellulasePLUS-XylanasePLUS (DyadicPLUS International Inc.) complexes (EFE): DEF1 (100% CellulasePLUS), DEF2 (100% XylanasePLUS), DEF3 (50% CellulasePLUS + 50% XylanasePLUS), DEF4 (75% CellulasePLUS + 25% XylanasePLUS), DEF5 (25% CellulasePLUS + 75% XylanasePLUS) at varying xylanase to cellulase ratio (between 0.49 and 2.2) were assessed at 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 30 µl/gDM. DEF1 and DEF2 were subject to higher doses 60 and 100 µl/g DM. 200 mg of grounded oat straw was anaerobically incubated with buffer solution, fresh ruminal fluid, and EFE. The gas production (GP) was measured during 96h of incubation. EFE supplementation improved the rate and extent of GP and exerted quadratic responses (p-value < 0.001) for most parameters. The highest results were recorded for DEF3 (xylanase to cellulase = 1.5) with its optimal dose D5 = 5µl/gDM. As compared to the control, DEF3 increased the GP, GP rate, OMD, VFA and ME by 63.7%, 144.7%, 77.2%, 135.5%, and 54.8%, respectively. The responses to EFE were dependent on dose rate and varying xylanase to cellulase ratio. DEF3 was reevaluated in second experiment on untreated, NaOH (OSS) and Urea (OSU) treated oat straw. DEF3 was less effective regarding GP, fermentation parameters, and estimated OMD, ME, and VFA of OSS and OSU. Therefore, selecting the best xylanase to cellulase ratio and its optimal dose depends on chemical composition of the targeted substrate because of enzyme-substrate specificity.