Effects of Feeding Level on Energy, Nitrogen and Gas Metabolism of Arctic Foxes during Winter Fur Growth Period

  • ZHONG Wei ,
  • LUO Guoliang ,
  • ZHAO Meng ,
  • HAN Feifei ,
  • LI Guangyu
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  • Institute of Special Animal and Plant Science, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Changchun 130112, China

Received date: 2020-05-01

  Online published: 2021-01-18

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to study the effects of feeding levels on the metabolism of energy, nitrogen and gas of Arctic foxes during winter fur growth period. Thirty-six 161-day-old male Arctic foxes with average body weight of (7 285±6) g were randomly divided into 4 groups with 9 replicates per group and 1 fox per replicate. All foxes fed the same diet, but the feeding level was ad libitum feeding (Ⅰ group), 80% ad libitum intake (Ⅱ group), 60% ad libitum intake (Ⅲ group) and 40% ad libitum intake (Ⅳ group), respectively. The experiment was completed in 6 phases with 3 phases for each feeding level. Six Arctic foxes were selected for each phase and randomly placed into 6 respiratory metabolism chambers, and 1 Arctic fox was put into each respiratory metabolism chamber. The digestion and metabolism trial, respiratory calorimetry measurement test and fasting metabolism test were carried out by the respiration calorimetry measurement device for fox. The trial began on October 2, 2017 and ended on December 14, 2017. The results showed as follows: 1) as the feeding level decreasing, the gross energy intake (GEI), feces energy (FE), urine energy (UE), digestible energy (DE), metabolizable energy (ME), net energy (NE) were extremely significantly reduced (P<0.01), the ME/DE and NE/ME were significantly or extremely significantly decreased (P<0.05 or P<0.01), however, the DE/GE and ME/GE were not significantly influenced (P>0.05); in addition, dietary net energy intake (NEI) was significantly decreased (P<0.05), but the digestible energy intake (DEI) and metabolizable energy intake (MEI) were not significantly affected (P>0.05). 2) As the feeding level decreasing, the nitrogen intake (NI), fecal nitrogen (FN), urinary nitrogen (UN), nitrogen retention (RN), RN/NI and RN/digestible nitrogen (DN) were significantly or extremely significantly reduced (P<0.05 or P<0.01), however, the nitrogen apparent digestibility was not significantly influenced by feeding level (P>0.05). 3) In the respiration heat test, the respiratory quotient (RQ) in group Ⅲ was extremely significantly higher than that in the other three groups (P<0.01), and the O2 consumption and CO2 emission in group Ⅱ were significantly higher than those in the other three groups (P<0.05). In the fasting metabolism test, feeding level had no significant effects on RQ, O2 consumption and CO2 emission (P>0.05). In conclusion, under the conditions of this experiment, restricted feeding significantly reduces the intake and utilization of all kinds of effective energy, the conversion efficiency of DE and ME, and the intake and retention of nitrogen during the winter fur growth period of Arctic fox. Meanwhile, appropriate restriction of feeding does not significantly reduce the utilization of nitrogen, and improves the degree of oxidative metabolism of nutrients, increases O2 consumption and CO2 emission. The regression equations of NI and RN are established, and the maintenance net nitrogen and protein requirements for Arctic foxes during the winter fur growth period are 676.3 mg/(kg BW0.75·d) and 4.227 g/(kg BW0.75·d), respectively.

Cite this article

ZHONG Wei , LUO Guoliang , ZHAO Meng , HAN Feifei , LI Guangyu . Effects of Feeding Level on Energy, Nitrogen and Gas Metabolism of Arctic Foxes during Winter Fur Growth Period[J]. Chinese Journal of Animal Nutrition, 2021 , 33(1) : 457 -465 . DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1006-267x.2021.01.046

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