BIOCHEMICAL ENERGY AND HEMATOLOGICAL PROFILE OF SHEEP SUPPLEMENTED WITH SOY MOLASSES

Soy molasses is a by-product of the soy industry, with low commercial cost and rich in carbohydrates and proteins. Despite the great variety of by-products and being potentially beneÞ cial, it is not fully understood how the interaction between the nutrients in this product and the physiological changes in sheep occurs. Thus, the objective was to evaluate the effects of supplementation levels with soy molasses on the energy metabolites and hematological parameters of sheep. The treatments consisted of 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12% of inclusion of soy molasses in dry matter basis for a basal diet of corn silage, which met the nutritional needs of the sheep in maintenance, distributed in a 5 × 5 Latin square design. The energy metabolites evaluated were: cholesterol, triglycerides, very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL), and fructosamine. The hematological parameters were: red


INTRODUCTION
The by-products are agro-industrial residues from the processing of plant products, such as ß our, seeds, pulp and husks generated on a large scale with potential for use in animal feed (OLIVO et al., 2017). Among the main interests of the use by-products of food industry in the animal food, there is a reduction in the cost of diets, through the use of regional products, reductioning the inclusion of commodities. Among the by-products used in animal feed, soy molasses comes from the soy industry, which has a low commercial cost and implies environmental problems when disposed of incorrectly (RODRIGUES et al., 2017). Several forms of use are proposed for molasses, such as in fermentation processes due to its high sugar content (SIQUEIRA et al., 2008) and in animal nutrition, to improve the quality of the Þ nal product (MILETIĆ et al., 2017;RODRIGUES et al., 2020).
Soybean molasses is rich in carbohydrates, produced through the alcoholic extraction of the sugars present in the defatted bran, such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, rafÞ nose and stachyose. In addition, it has a glutinous texture, brownish color and a bittersweet ß avor, which can inß uence the palatability when used in animal feed (SQUEIRA et al., 2008). Despite a wide variety of by-products, its beneÞ ts are obtained through the interaction between nutrients and animal physiology, in other words, digestion, absorption and use of metabolites (MARTINS et al., 2000), which makes prediction difÞ cult results when offered as a constituent of the diet.
According to Silveira et al. (2012), through energy metabolites it is possible to predict the energy balance of the animal as a form of nutritional assessment, determining their presence in the bloodstream in animals. In this way, the energy metabolite indicators are adequate to understand the use of soybean molasses in sheep diets. In addition, energy parameters aim to assess energy balance and indicate the degree of deposition and mobilization of energy reserves, associated with lipid metabolism (FERNANDES et al., 2012). The cholesterol concentrations affect energy metabolism in the liver, especially about the export of lipids in the form of very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) (NDLOVU et al., 2007). As with fructosamines, which are proteins glycosylated by a non-enzymatic mechanism and markers of the average blood glucose concentration, the concentrations of energy metabolites are also not inß uenced by momentary changes in the glycemic proÞ le (ARMBRUSTER, 1987;FILIPOVIC et al., 2011;LIMA et al., 2016).
The inclusion of certain alternative foods may be potential causes of metabolic disorders, due to interferences in the hematological composition, and clinical hematological monitoring being able to indicate possible imbalances in nutrient homeostasis (BEZERRA et al., 2013). Thus, the tool can be used to assess the feasibility of use and level of inclusion of by-products in the diet for both humans and animals (VIANA et al., 2002). Therefore, we hypothesize that soy molasses supplementation alters the energy metabolites and hematological parameters of sheep in maintenance. Thus, the objective was to evaluate the effects of levels of soy molasses supplementation on energy metabolites and hematological parameters of sheep.

MATERIAL E METHODS
All procedures were carried out in accordance with the Ethics Committee for the Use of Animals for Research at the Federal University of Uberlândia, under license number 069/14. The experiment was carried out in the goat and sheep sector of the Federal University of Uberlândia, in the city of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Five crossbred ewes in maintenance ½ Dorper x ½ Santa Inês with mean body mass of 45 ± 3.5 kg and 12 ± 2 months of age, distributed in a 5 × 5 Latin square design, were used. The ewes were housed in individual metabolic cages of 2m2, provided with feeders and drinkers, following the recommendations of the National Institute of Science and Technology (INCT).
The treatments consisted of 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12% inclusion of soybean molasses on a dry matter basis for a basal corn silage diet, which met the nutritional needs of sheep in maintenance (NRC, 2007). The composition and energy content of the diet ingredients is presented in Table 1. Food samples were collected daily and subsequently analyzed to determine the concentrations of ash, crude protein, dry matter and crude energy (DETMANN, 2012). Neutral detergent Þ ber concentration was performed according to Van Soest et al. (1991).

Energy metabolites
Since soy molasses is rich mainly in carbohydrates, such as the monosac-  The maintenance of energy metabolism between treatments was also observed through the concentration of fructosamine.
According to Kaneko (2008), fructosamine is a metabolite positively correlated with glucose concentrations.

Hematological proÞ le
There was no signiÞ cant difference in the concentrations of red blood cells, hemoglobins, hematocrits and platelets in sheep with soy molasses supplementation (P>0.05) ( Table 3).  (Table 3).
The mean hemoglobin concentration of 7.28 was below the minimum recommended by KRAMER (2006). Therefore, according to the results found for the hematological parameters (Table 2), it is suggested that the ewes supplemented with increasing levels of soy molasses did not present an energy deÞ cit, which may be linked to a lag between the reference values used as a base with those observed in the study.