Utilização da ureia na alimentação de bovinos e equinos

Abstract

Nowadays, all breeding systems seek a greater efficiency in the use of the ingredients that compose the animal diet, therefore improving their productivity and, consequently, reducing production costs. Urea stands out as a source of non-protein nitrogen, highly used in ruminant feed, while for non-ruminant animals, the use still limited due the low conversion into microbial protein, the high toxicity and the low palatability. Besides the knowledge of the consumption and the bromatological composition of the food, it is important to obtain information about the use of nutrients by the animal, through studies of the digestion. The present study aimed to show the use of urea in the bovine and equine feeding, as well as the mode of supply. Before the fulfilled revision, it was concluded that the treatment with the protein source originating from the urea can be done for bovine, meantime it does not provide major changes in dry matter consumption, besides not presenting significant results in milk composition and weight gain. For equines, the inclusion of urea in the diet did not show efficiency, since the retention of protein nitrogen was not significant.