9th International Deer Biology Congress

AUTHORS: Francisco Ceacero, Mechie A. Clar-Serrano, Radim Kotrba, Veit Ny – Department of Animal Science and Food Processing, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague; Ondrej Faltus, VVS Verměřovice s.r.o., Czech Republic

ABSTRACT: Amino acid supplementation is an almost unexplored research area in cervids. Only three studies have been previously conducted, all with a low sample size (four animals per experimental group) leading to inconclusive results[1,2,3]. These previous studies were conducted on Cervus elaphus and Cervus nippon. For that reason, in this study we focused on the effects of supplementation with ruminally protected amino acids in a large herd of fallow deer (Dama dama), which is the most commonly farmed deer species in Europe.
This study was designed to investigate the effects of lysine and methionine supplementation on growth performance, body condition, carcass traits, and blood plasma metabolites related to protein and fat metabolism, of fallow deer during the fattening period. A second goal was to determine the influence of two culling seasons on these parameters. Forty-five farmed male fallow deer were randomly allocated to three groups of 15 animals each, balanced by body weight. The supplementation experiment started at 11 months of age (calves from the previous year). All three groups were pasture-fed and supplemented with barley (500 g/ animal/ day) and mineral premix ad libitum. The groups received varying levels of ruminally-protected lysine and methionine: 1) no amino acids (Control), 2) 9 g/day of lysine (Lys), and 3) 9 g/day of lysine plus 3 g/day of methionine (Lys+Met). Animals were culled in two separate seasons: late autumn (LA; 6 animals/group), and late winter (LW; 9 animals/group). To compensate for the lack of pasture during winter, the animals received grass silage during this period. Generalized Linear Mixed Models tested the effects of treatment and culling period on selected carcass traits (culling weight, average daily weight gain ADG, carcass weight, dressing percentage, blood weight, percentage of meat, body condition score [BCS], kidney fat index [KFI], total kidney fat weight, percentage of internal fat) and blood biochemistry (creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, total proteins, albumin, globulins and tryglicerides).
Supplementation had no significant effects on final weight, while ADG significantly decreased in the LW (p=0.002). Lys+Met supplementation positively influenced BCS (p=0.024), while animals culled in LW showed decreased BCS (p