PSVI-16 - Essential fatty acids and bio-surfactants can improve de bovine production in tropical pasture

Improving the efficiency of production of beef cattle on tropical pasture is a challenge. So, new technologies need be tested. Essential fatty acids (EFA) are essential for cell structure, regulation and can improve the immune response. Bio-surfactants (BS) can increase the interaction between microorganisms and substrates in the rumen (Liu et al., 2013). The aim of this work was to test a blend of EFA and BS in the performance of beef cattle in tropical pasture. This study was conducted in the Premix's Research Center, Patrocínio Paulista, São Paulo State, Brazil. The area used had 6 hectares of pasture of Urochloa brizantha (syn. Brachiaria brizantha). Twenty-four Nellore steers were evaluated for 313 days. The initial weight was 253 ±10.9 kg. The diet was pasture and protein-energy supplements (0.4% of live weight) with (test) or not (control) additives. The additive was the blend of EFA (14.02g/kg-linolenic) and BS (57.5g/kg-phosphatidylcholine) including 0.3% in the supplement. The parameters used were daily average gain, carcass yield and carcass daily gain. The rumen degradability of dry matter of the forage was analyzed with cannulated animals (72, 48, 36, 24, 12, 6, 0 hours; Orskov & McDonald,1979). The analysis of variance was used with 5% significance. The daily average gain was 680 g/day for the control and 735 g/day for the test (P = 0.02). The carcass yield is not different (mean=55.48). The carcass daily gain was 429 g/day for the control and 456 g/day for the test (P = 0.06). The degradation potential of dry matter was 54.25% for the control and 56.71% for the test (P = 0.03). This is 4.5% more degradation of dry matter for the test. It can explain the 8% more of daily average gain and 8.45 kg of carcass in the period. The blend of EFA and BS can take additive effect improving the bovine production on tropical pasture and can be an environmentally friendly alternative.