Effect of Lipid-Encapsulated Acacia Tannin Extract on Feed Intake, Nutrient Digestibility and Methane Emission in Sheep

Simple Summary: Enteric methane is not just a contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission, it also represents a loss of potential feed energy. The use of Acacia tannin extracts as a dietary additive effectively reduced methane production while also modulating nitrogen loss. The reduction in methane output in sheep receiving the encapsulated-Acacia tannin extract (ATE), as compared to the crude-ATE diet, suggests the potential use of encapsulation to improve tannin inclusion in ruminant diets, by enabling the sustained release of the tannin to the rumen environment. Abstract: Tannins have become important phytochemicals in ruminant production, due to their wide range of biological activities. The use of a crude extract often comes with limitations, such as reduced feed intake and fibre digestibility, which could be overcome by the use of encapsulated tannin extract. In this study, four rumen-cannulated Merino wethers were used in a 4 x 4 Latin square design to determine the effect of encapsulating Acacia mearnsii tannin extract on intake, nutrient digestibility, and methane emission. The animals were placed on one of the following diets: control diet only, diet + silvafeed (Silvafeed ByPro, 10 g/kg feed), diet + Acacia tannin extract (ATE), 40 g/kg feed), and, diet + lipid-encapsulated-ATE (palm oil encapsulated ATE, 50 g/kg feed) in 4 cycles. Wethers were offered an Eragrotis and Lucerne hay-based total mixed ration diet above maintenance requirement with forage: concentrate ratio 50:50. Silvafeed, a commercial tannin additive, was used as a positive control. Nutrient intake was not different across the treatments, but nutrient digestibility was affected by dietary additives (p < 0.05). Compared to the control, and unlike the crude extract, encapsulated-ATE and silvafeed did not reduce dry matter, organic matter, and neutral detergent fibre digestibility. While the overall N-retention and total N-excretion (g/d) were not affected by dietary additives, ATE and encapsulated-ATE diets reduced urine-N excretion (g/d) and only a slight reduction was observed in silvafeed diet. The faecal-N proportion was highest in the ATE diet (388 g/kg N-intake), followed by encapsulated-ATE (317 g/kg), and silvafeed (267 g/kg), with the control diet having the lowest proportion (230 g/kg). The acetate:propionate (A:P) ratio reduced as a result of the inclusion of dietary additives with crude ATE and silvafeed having lower A:P ratio compared to the control diet. Methane production expressed in g/kg dry matter (DM) intake was reduced by 12%, 30% and 19% in the silvafeed, crude ATE and encapsulated-ATE diets, respectively (p < 0.05). The reduced methane production with higher neutral detergent fibre (NDF) digestibility in the encapsulated-ATE, compared to the crude-ATE, confirms that encapsulated-tannin can be used as an additive in ruminant diets.