Performance and carcass traits of sheep fed microencapsulated escape lysine into carnauba wax as shell and added tannin as an adjuvant

Abstract

The use of escape protein, which is absorbed in the small intestine, can improve the production of ruminant animals because it meets their protein requirements better. This study hypothesized that wax lipid matrices are effective encapsulants for escape lysine in ruminants and tested tannin extract as an adjuvant, improving performance and carcass traits of sheep. Forty intact male sheep, Santa Ines × Dorper crossbreeds, approximately four months old with an average initial body weight of 23 ± 1.2 kg, were used in this study. The animals were allocated, in a randomized block design, to four treatments and ten replicates per treatment. The treatments consisted of a control group without escape lysine inclusion (0.0%); a group with free lysine inclusion in the diet (non-encapsulated/0.44%); a group with lysine microencapsulated in a carnauba wax lipid matrix (1.34%); and a group with lysine microencapsulated in a carnauba wax lipid matrix combined with tannin extract from Mimosa tenuiflora (1.34%). Microencapsulation of lysine as an escape protein source used carnauba wax as a shell, which was carried out following the fusion emulsification technique. The experimental diets did not affect the animals' performance variables (p > 0.05). There was also no effect of diets containing encapsulated lysine using tannin as an adjuvant (p > 0.05) on hot and cold carcass weights and yields, with an average slaughter weight of 35.4 kg, average hot carcass yield of 44.8%, drip losses of 2.6%, and average subcutaneous fat thickness of 1.6 cm. The inclusion of lysine in free or protected forms in carnauba wax, associated or not with tannin from Mimosa tenuiflora, did not affect sheep's performance and carcass traits.