Authors:
Esau de Jesus Perez-Luna
, Humberto Leon-Velasco
, Guillermo Jimenez-Ferrer
,
Lorena Soto-Pinto
, Yolanda Perez-Luna
, Jose Alayon-Gamboa |
Abstract:
Foliage from fodder trees is a nutritional option that can improve small ruminant systems. A trial
was conducted to evaluate the effect of Leucaena leucocephala foliage on voluntary intake and
the apparent digestibility in sheep fed with Panicum maximum L. cv. Tanzania. Five "Pelibuey"
male sheep (30 +_ 1.0 kg), enclosed in metabolic cages, were fed on five diets based on P.
maximum mixed with different inclusion levels of L. leucocephala respectively (T1= 100-0, T2 =
80-20, T3 = 60-40, T4 = 40-60 y T5 = 20-80 %). Treatment diets were arranged in a Latin Square
5 x 5 and randomly allocated to each animal. Each experimental period lasted 12 days, 7 for
adaptation to diet and 5 for measurements. The diets had a similar concentration of
metabolizable energy ME (MJ / kg-1 DM). The results obtained for the voluntary intake of DM
(kg0.75), NFD, AFD, hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin were significantly different (P <0.05).
The largest voluntary DM intake was obtained with the T3 and T4diets (79.72 and 75.01 g / kg
W0.75). Similar behaviour was observed for NFD intake (T3 = 550.90 and T4=506.26 g/sheep-1
).
The coefficient of apparent digestibility of DM, did not present any statistical variation (P
<0.05). With regard to the ME concentration treatments, there were no significant differences (P
<0.05); however T2resulted in the highest concentration of ME (9.27 MJ / kg DM-1
). The trial showed that the foliage of L. leucocephala is an important local source of nitrogen which
improves the nutritional value of a diet of P. maximum in sheep. |
