3.2. In vivo digestibility
In vivo digestibility of CP and NDF (Table 3) showed a
tendency, although not significant (P > 0.05), to decrease
with the inclusion of coffee pulp in the diet, compared
to the control treatment. However, the T0 group (49.60%)
had significantly (P < 0.05) higher ADF digestibility than T2
(42.24%) and T1 (42.12%) groups. Digestibility of organic
matter showed similar values for all three treatments
(P > 0.05).
3.3. pH, ammonia nitrogen, and VFA
There were no differences (P > 0.05) in pH among the
three treatments. The greatest(P > 0.05) ammonia nitrogen
concentration was found in the T2 treatment followed by
the T0 treatment.
The T2 treatment had significantly (P < 0.05) higher
acetic acid, butyric and total VFAs than T1. Propionic acid
showed the same tendency as acetic acid, where the T2
treatment was higher (P < 0.05) than T1 (Table 3).
3.4. TBARS and FRAP
Although coffee pulp increased the antioxidant capacity
of the diet (Table 1), no significant differences were
observed in the antioxidant content of plasma sheep fed
with coffee pulp by the end of the fattening process. At
the beginning of the fattening process, before supplying
the experimental diets, the antioxidant capacity was lower(P < 0.05) than it was at the end of the fattening process.
With regard to lipid oxidation, at the end of the fattening
process no differences (P > 0.05) were found between the
animals of the control treatment and the animals fed 8%
coffee pulp; however, the inclusion of 16% coffee pulp in
the diet decreased the levels of MDA (P < 0.05) (Table 4).