| Summary: | Abstract Background The use of plants and by‐products, which are containing a high amount of secondary and anti‐nutritional compounds such as tannins, in animal feed is limited. The methods that can reduce these compounds make facilitate their use in animal feed. Objectives The aim of this study was to reduce the adverse effects of pomegranate peel (PP) tannin for fattening lambs using the tannase‐producing bacteria. Methods Twenty‐one Arabi male lambs (averagely 35 ± 3.8 kg weight and 8 ± 1.0 months age) were used in a completely randomized design with three treatments and seven replications in the present experiment. The experimental treatments included 1 – control diet (CNT, no PP), 2 – diet containing untreated PP (raw PP, UTPP) and 3 – diet containing PP treated with tannase‐producing bacteria (bacteria treating PP, BTPP). Results Using UTPP decreased nutrient intake compared to the control and treatment with tannase‐producing bacteria again significantly increased nutrient intake compared to the UTPP (p < 0.05). The digestibilities of organic matter, neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre in the control treatment were significantly higher than UTPP and BTPP and in the BTPP were significantly higher than the UTPP (p < 0.05). The use of UTPP in the diet significantly decreased the pH, ammonia nitrogen concentration and the total protozoa population of the rumen compared to the control (p < 0.05), and treatment with bacteria increased them again. The lowest total protozoa population was observed in UTPP treatments (p < 0.05). The highest concentration of blood glucose was observed in UTPP; however, the highest concentrations of blood urea nitrogen, cholesterol, triglyceride, high‐density lipoprotein (non‐significant) and low‐density lipoprotein were in the control treatment. The effect of experimental treatments on the dry matter consumption of the whole period was significant; however, there was no significant effect on average daily gain, feed conversion ratio, feed efficiency and longissimus muscle colorimetric systems. Conclusions Therefore, considering the positive effects of treatment PP with tannin‐degrading bacteria relative to raw PP, using these bacteria is a proper way to reduce tannin, thus improving the nutritional value of PP for ruminants.
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