Evaluating taste preference of different sources of Ascophyllum nodosum meal in dairy heifers

We evaluated the supplementation of different sources of the brown seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum (ASCO) meal on taste preference in dairy heifers during a sequential elimination experiment. Six organic certified Jersey heifers averaging (mean ± standard deviation) 16 ± 1.15 wk of age and 92 ± 9.88 kg of body weight at the beginning of the study were used. Treatments consisted of a ground corn-based concentrate mash without seaweed supplementation (control), or this same concentrate mash supplemented with 57 g/d of ASCO meal obtained from Acadian Seaplants (Acadian Kelp), North American Kelp (SeaLife Kelp), or Thorvin Inc. (Thorvin for Animals). The experiment was conducted with 1 heifer enrolled at a time for 11 d each (n = 66 d total) with the feeding regimens distributed as follows: d 0–2 (adaptation phase), d 3–6 (feeding segment 1), d 7–9 (feeding segment 2), and d 10–11 (feeding segment 3). During feeding segment 1 (d 3–6), the control diet was the most consumed treatment resulting in a total dry matter intake of 22.6 kg followed by Acadian, Thorvin, and SeaLife with 17.7, 13.2, and 11.0 kg, respectively. However, Acadian was selected as the most preferred treatment during feeding segment 1 for a total of 11 d, with control, Thorvin, and SeaLife totaling 8, 3, and 2 d, respectively. In the final ranking of treatments, when all 3 feeding segments were included in the evaluation, Acadian was selected as the first choice by 4 heifers with a ranking of 1.67 points, on a scale ranging from 1 (most preferred) to 4 (least preferred), followed by control (2.50 points), Thorvin (2.67 points), and SeaLife (3.17 points). Overall, the treatments containing Acadian and SeaLife were the most and least preferred, respectively, indicating that heifers were able to distinguish different sources of the same seaweed species based on a taste preference sequential elimination experiment.