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Abstract It was aimed to evaluate the effects of replacement of wheat bran in lambs' diets with spineless cactus (0, 33, 66, and 100%) in a lamb's diet on the physicochemical parameters, fatty acids and sensory analyasis of meat. The evaluation utilized 36 loins and legs from F1 ½ Dorper × ½ Santa Inês lambs, with an average initial body weight of 19.5 ± 1.6 kg, were slaughtered after 70 days of confinement. Were found average values of 5.70, 11.27 N, 55.44 mg/100 g, of meat pH, shear force, and cholesterol, respectively. However, stearic acid, linoleic, linolenic, eicosatrienoic and eicosapentaenoic which linearly decreased. The color, aroma, texture, flavor, juiciness and global acceptance of meat were acceptable by the evaluators, additionally, they said they would buy meat coming of animals fed with 100% replacement. It is recommended that wheat bran is replaced by spineless cactus in the diet of lambs when this shows to be an ingredient with better cost-benefit ratio compared to wheat bran. Highlights • Spineless cactus may replace wheat bran in sheep' diet because it does not influence the physical-chemical meat parameters. • The evaluators said they would buy meat from lambs fed up to 100% of replacement of wheat bran for spineless cactus. • This work presents useful contributions to sheep production in the Brazilian semiarid region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corn is an international commodity, which can increase the costs of livestock production, since it is part of ruminants, non-ruminants, and human diets. Thus, it is important to include alternative feedstuffs for ruminants to reduce costs with animal feeding. The objective of this study was to evaluate the intake and apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM) and nutrients, as well as voluntary water intake, ingestive behavior, performance, nitrogen (N) balance, blood serum metabolites, and hematological profiles of Santa Inês lambs fed different inclusion levels (0, 116, 233 and 353 g/kg of diet DM) of a blend of residues from the candy industry (RCI) and corn gluten feed (CGF), at the ratio of 613:387 on DM basis. Thirty-six Santa Inês lambs (approximately six months old and 19.43 ± 1.69 kg of initial body weight [BW]) were distributed in a completely randomized design. Intakes of DM, crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber treated with heat-stable α-amylase and corrected for ash and protein (aNDFap), water, and metabolizable energy (ME), and the apparent digestibility coefficients (DM, CP and NFCap), N balance, growth performance, feeding efficiency of DM and aNDFap, blood serum profile, erythogram and leukogram (neutrophil, lymphocytes, eosinophils and basophils) were not affected (P > 0.05) by the level of inclusion of the RCI:CGF blend in the diet. The apparent digestibility coefficient of aNDFap and monocyte tended to increase (P < 0.10), while aNDFap rumination efficiency tended to decrease (P < 0.10) with the increase in the RCI:CGF blend inclusion in the diets. Time on feeding, rumination, and total time chewing increased linearly (P < 0.001) with the inclusion of the RCI:CGF blend in the diets. The blend of the residues from the candy industry and corn gluten feed (at the ratio of 613:387 on DM basis) can totally replace ground corn in up to 353 g/kg diet DM. • Residues from candy industry and corn gluten feed blend (RCI:CGF) can replace corn. • Digestibility of neutral detergent fiber with RCI:CGF blend tended to increase. • Urinary nitrogen excretion was not affected by the inclusion of the RCI:CGF blend. • Blend increased feeding and rumination times, without influencing nutrient intake. • Performance did not vary and feed costs decreased by $ 0.06/kg of DM of the blend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]