Noteworthy Red Blood Cells Fragility of Sheep Fed Whole Cottonseed as a Feed Supplement for a Basal Diet Grass Hay

It has been reported that inclusion of whole cottonseed (WCS) in the diet of sheep increased red blood fragility (RBC). The effect of gossypol on erythrocyte fragility can be used to measure the safe feeding levels of cottonseed products to animals. An investigation was conducted to examine the effect of feeding WCS as a supplement for sheep fed grass hay on the RBC. The sheep were kept in an individual metabolism crate and fed 4 diets treatment (T1-T4). The 4 diets offered were T1 = grass hay (GH) alone, T2 = GH + 150 g WCS, T3 = GH + 300 g WCS, and T4 = GH + 500 g WCS per day (fresh basis). The results of this experiment indicated that the RBC fragility was sensitive to WCS intake. Although the increased in the hemolysis of RBC of the sheep fed T3 and T4 did not appear to be detrimental, nevertheless, prolonged feeding WCS would probably induce changes in and the damage to the blood constituents. In general, it may be concluded that supplementation at 500 g WCS d-1 (37% of the diet) which contributed to additional dietary gossypol and dietary fat significantly depressed feed digestibility. The osmotic fragility of RBC was also increased at this level of WCS supplementation suggesting that some of diet free gossypol escaped from rumen detoxification and/or some bound gossypol might be hydrolysed in the rumen and absorbed via the small intestine, which induced biochemical changes resulting in increased RBC fragility.