Pomegranate seed pulp as a novel replacement of dietary cereal grains for kids

- Cereal grains of kid's diet can partially replace by pomegranate seed pulp (PSP).
- PSP inclusion in diet does not affect kid's growth performance.
- PSP inclusion in diet decreases cost of meat production.
- PSP inclusion in diet enhances antioxidant capacity of kid's tissues.
- PSP is found to be a cost effective antioxidant rich feedstuff in ruminant production.

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of partial replacing of cereal grains of diet with pomegranate seed pulp (PSP) on performance, nutrient digestibility and antioxidant capacity of fattening Mahabadi goat kids. Thirty-two Mahabadi male goat kids, 4-5 months of age and 16.5 ± 2.8 kg body weight (BW) were assigned to four dietary treatments: (1) diet without PSP (control), (2) diet containing 5% of PSP (PSP5), (3) diet containing 10% of PSP (PSP10), and (4) diet containing 15% of PSP (PSP15) (DM basis). The kids were slaughtered after 84 d of feeding trial and antioxidant capacity was measured in the liver and longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle samples. Dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain (ADG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were not affected by diets (P > 0.05). Feed cost per kg of hot and cold carcass weight decreased with increasing levels of PSP in diet (P < 0.05). Addition of PSP to diet decreased kidney fat (P < 0.05) and tended to increase ether extract (EE) apparent digestibility (P = 0.07). The LL muscle (P < 0.05), liver (P = 0.08) and plasma (P < 0.05) samples from kids fed PSP15 displayed a greater antioxidant capacity than kids fed control diet. No significant difference was found in glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity among the groups (P > 0.05), but the malondialdehyde (MDA) content of the LL muscle, liver and plasma decreased (P < 0.05) in PSP15 group when compared with control group. The results of this study indicated that partial replacing of dietary cereal grains with PSP did not affect growth performance, carcass traits and nutrient digestibility, while decreased cost of meat production and improved the antioxidant capacity of kids.