Rumen characteristics and feed utilization in goats fed with biologically treated oil palm fronds as roughage in a total mixed ration

P Chanjula,A Cherdthong,V Petcharat

doi:10.4314/sajas.v48i6.7

Abstract

Six male crossbred (Thai Native x Anglo Nubian) goats, 33.5 ± 1.7 kg body weight (BW), were randomly assigned to a 3 x 3 replicated Latin square design to investigate the effects of fungal-treated oil palm fronds (FTOPF) on feed intake, digestibility, ruminal fermentation and nitrogen utilization. The treatments were untreated oil palm frond (UOPF; T1), fungal treated oil palm frond (FTOPF; T2) and fungal treated oil palm frond with urea 1% (FTOPFU; T3). The results revealed that voluntary feed intake was not significantly different among treatments, while digestion coefficients of nutrients (DM, OM, CP, NDF, and ADF) increased significantly with FTOPF. However, the mean ruminal temperature, pH, NH3-N, blood urea-nitrogen and amount of N absorbed and retained were similar among treatments. In conclusion, FTOPF could be included in total mixed rations without any adverse effect on feed intake, digestibility and rumen fermentation efficiency, suggesting that FTOPF could be used potential as an alternative roughage source for ruminants. Keywords : Agricultural by-product, digestibility, fungal treatment, Lentinussajor-caju, small ruminant

Highlights

The increasing expansion of the oil palm industry over the past few years all over the world has led to the accumulation of agricultural by-products such as leaves and petioles, called oil palm fronds (OPF) (Rahman et al, 2011)
The lower neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) levels following fungal treatment might be an indication of cell wall breakdown due to Lentinussajor-caju
Decreases in the levels of these fibre fractions were reported by Jalc et al (1996) and Fazaeli et al (2006) for wheat straw colonized for 2 - 4 wks with P. ostreatus, madake bamboo colonized for 10 wks with C. subvermispora (Okano et al, 2009), OPF colonized for 3 - 9 wks with C. subvermispora (3 wks) and L. edodes and P. brevispora (9 wks) (Rahman et al, 2011)

Summary

Introduction

The increasing expansion of the oil palm industry over the past few years all over the world has led to the accumulation of agricultural by-products such as leaves and petioles, called oil palm fronds (OPF) (Rahman et al, 2011). In order to break down the lignocellulosic bonds and increase bioavailability of nutrients, various physical and chemical delignification methods have been examined in agricultural by-products such as in rice and wheat straws (Hamed & Elimam, 2010; Shah et al, 2017a;b). Those methods are expensive, have a low effectiveness and are not environmentally friendly. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of fungal treated oil palm fronds without or with urea on feed intake, digestibility, ruminal fermentation and N utilization in goats

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusion