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Evaluation of In vitro Gas Production and Digestibility of Wheat Straw Based Complete Feed Supplemented with Different Levels of Herbs in Rumen Liquor of Marwari Sheep

Manju R. K. Dhuria R. K. Khinchi Padma Meel M. S. Meel
Vol 9(1), 80-85
DOI- http://dx.doi.org/10.5455/ijlr.20180507075839

In order to assess the effect of herbal feed additive at different levels in wheat straw based complete feed on rumen fermentation, in vitro trials were conducted by taking these herbs viz. Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus), Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri), Bhringraj (Eclipta alba) and Jiwanti (Leptadenia reticulata) in complete feed. The different herbs were incorporated in the complete feed @ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5% level of the feed and designated as T0, T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 treatment groups respectively. The data of in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) were recorded at 48 h and 72 h as well as total gas production (IVTGP) at 24 h for each group, respectively. The results indicated a linear increase (P < 0.01) in IVDMD and IVOMD at 48 h and 72 h incubation with the increase in the level of supplementation of Shatavari herb up to 4% level (T4) and 3% level (T3) for Bhringraj, Brahmi and Jiwanti herb, respectively. The total gas production was higher in the treatments group incorporated with herb at different levels than control (T0). The supplementation of Shatavari herb as feed additive beyond 4% level and Brahmi, Bhringraj and Jiwanti herb each beyond 3% level of incorporation did not have any beneficial effect on total gas production. The total gas production was significantly higher in treatment groups at 4% level in Shatavari and 3% level in Brahmi, Bhringraj and Jiwanti supplemented feeds, respectively. The results suggested that supplementation of Shatavari herb as feed additive at 4% level and Brahmi, Bhringraj and Jiwanti herb at 3% level of incorporation have beneficial effect on IVDMD, IVOMD and IVTGP.


Keywords : Complete Feed Feed Additives Herbs IVDMD IVOMD Total Gas Production

The demand of feed and fodder for livestock is much higher than availability. Various hormones, antibiotics and feed additive have been used to increase the animal productivity (Chaturvedi et al., 2015). Modification of ruminal fermentation using feed additives, such as antibiotics, has proved to be a useful strategy to improve production efficiency in dairy cattle. The use of antibiotics as feed additives has proved to be a useful tool to reduce energy and nitrogen losses from the diet (McGuffey et al., 2001). Since the use of antibiotics as feed additives in animals is banned due to risk of antibiotic residues in milk and meat. The increasing public concern about the use of antibiotics in the animal feed industry made scientists look for alternative to manipulate gastrointestinal microflora (Syadati et al., 2012). The use of herbal preparations appears as one of the most natural alternatives to the antibiotic use in animal nutrition.

The in vitro dry matter digestibility, in vitro organic matter digestibility, and in vitro gas production is a good indicator of the nutritive quality diet (Murrilo et al., 2011). The determination of the in vitro gas production is of value to nutritionist because it provides information on fermentation kinetics of forage consumed by ruminants, which is dependent on the rate of passage and the degradation rate (Mould et al., 2005). The rate and extent of dry matter fermentation in the rumen are crucial determinants utilized by ruminants. Therefore, this In vitro study was conducted to identify the optimum level of herbs in complete feed to increase the nutrient utilization from the In vitro rumen fermentation and total gas production by using sheep rumen liquor.

Materials and Methods

This study was carried out using four herbs viz. Shatavari, Brahmi, Bhringraj and Jiwanti. The complete feed was prepared by taking wheat straw as roughage source and concentrate in ratio of 60: 40 and was used as substrate for In vitro experiments. Concentrate mixture was composed of barley, deoiled rice bran, groundnut cake, guar korma, common salt and mineral mixture. The feed ingredients and four herbal feed additives were dried in hot air oven at 700C temperature for 24 h. After drying the herbs were grinded in the laboratory Willey Mill using 1.5 mm sieve. Each herbs were used at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5% level of substrate i.e. wheat straw based complete feed to assess nutrient utilization by In vitro experiments.  Four adult Marwari rams of same age and uniform conformation were selected as donor of rumen inoculum for In vitro study. The dietary requirements of the donor sheep were met by feeding the same complete feed as per ICAR (1985) which was used as substrate for In vitro studies.

Rumen liquor of animals was collected at 2 h post feeding. For in vitro studies 10 ml of strained rumen liquor along with 40 ml of fresh Mc Dougall buffer was added to the Erlenmeyer flask (Fig.1) containing substrate as per Tilley and Terry method (1963). The flask containing substrate along with rumen liquor and buffer was incubated at 39±10C with periodic shaking for 48h of incubation in BOD incubator. After incubation, pH of In vitro rumen liquor was measured immediately using electronic pH meter calibrated against standard buffer solution. The contents were refluxed for 1h and filtered through pre-weighed Gooch crucibles. For In vitro studies at 72 h incubation of samples was done same as mentioned above for 48 h incubation studies. After 48 h of incubation the reaction was stopped by adding 2 ml of 6N hydrochloride acid and 0.1 g pepsin powder (1:3000) to each flask. Flasks were further incubated for another 24 h and contents of each flask were filtered through pre weighed Gooch crucible, dried and weighed. The dry matter content of the residue was weighed and in vitro dry matter digestibility of feed was calculated as follows-

The crucibles containing residue were kept for ashing in muffle furnace at 5000C and organic matter present in residue was calculated. The organic matter digestibility was calculated as follows-

An another flask containing 0.2g feed was incubated at 39±10C for 24h with 30 ml medium in 100 ml capacity Hohenheim gas syringe (Fig. 2) (Menke and Steingass, 1988) for estimation of In vitro total gas production (IVTGP) in ml/200mg. Total gas production was calculated as displacement of piston in 24hr. The data obtained in the experiment were analyzed using statistical procedures as suggested by Snedecor and Cochran (1994). Significance of means differences were tested by Duncan’s New Multiple Range Test (DNMRT).

Fig. 1: Erlenmeyer flask Fig. 2: Hohenheim gas syringe

 

Results and Discussion

The results indicated a linear increase (P<0.01) in IVDMD and IVOMD at 48 h and 72 h incubation with the increase in the level of supplementation of Shatavari herb up to 4% level (T4). Inclusion of Shatavari herb beyond 4% level of substrate did not have any additional improvement on IVDMD and IVOMD (Table 1 and 2). Similarly, IVDMD and IVOMD at 48 h incubation and 72 h incubation were highest (P<0.01) at 3% level of Brahmi, Bhringraj and Jiwanti supplementation in the complete feed, respectively but beyond 3% levels, IVDMD and IVOMD were reduced significantly (P<0.01).

Table 1:   In vitro DM digestibility of complete feed containing different levels of herb as feed additive at 48 & 72 h incubation (% DM basis)

Herbs Treatment Groups SEM
T0 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5
48 h
Shatavari 49.23a 54.74b 55.37b 58.21c 62.58d 58.32c 0.32
Brahmi 49.23a 51.84b 56.48d 58.27e 55.25c 52.71b 0.23
Bhringraj 49.23a 55.71b 58.35c 62.14e 60.28d 59.95d 0.28
Jiwanti 49.23a 51.44bc 51.92c 56.38d 52.01c 50.91b 0.21
72 h
Shatavari 58.81a 62.76b 63.44b 65.78c 70.53d 66.75c 0.5
Brahmi 58.81a 60.34b 64.78b 69.45e 65.66d 61.54c 0.26
Bhringraj 58.81a 64.65b 66.87c 70.69e 68.35d 65.43b 0.26
Jiwanti 58.81a 60.87b 61.54bc 65.78d 62.56c 59.77a 0.27

Mean with different superscripts in a row differs significantly.

Table 2: In vitro OM digestibility of complete feed containing different levels of herb as feed additive at 48 & 72 h incubation (% DM basis)

Herbs Treatment groups SEM
T0 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5
48 h
Shatavari 56.81a 59.92b 61.03b 62.77b 69.54c 62.04b 0.77
Brahmi 56.81a 57.34a 61.23c 63.78d 59.65b 57.14a 0.27
Bhringraj 56.81a 61.54b 64.43c 66.92d 63.60c 64.38c 0.31
Jiwanti 56.81a 59.06b 58.56b 62.65c 59.09b 58.82b 0.41
72 h
Shatavari 62.90a 69.46b 70.94c 72.02c 78.57e 74.75d 0.33
Brahmi 62.90a 64.74b 68.56d 75.22f 70.44e 66.35c 0.49
Bhringraj 62.90a 69.84b 72.55d 76.36f 73.14e 70.39c 0.37
Jiwanti 62.90a 64.62c 65.36cd 70.16e 66.12d 63.84b 0.21

Mean with different superscripts in a row differs significantly.

These results also suggested that inclusion of Shatavari herb beyond 4% level and Brahmi, Bhringraj and Jiwanti herb each beyond 3% level of substrate did not have any significant improvement on In vitro nutrient utilization. The improvement in dry matter digestibility of complete feed might be due to enhanced microbial activity in rumen liquor due to presence of herbs. These herbs might have also enhanced the activity of microbes adhered to complete feed. The finding in the present study corroborated with that of Bakshi et al. (2004) who reported that the In vitro digestibility of nutrients were improved with herbal feed additives. The findings were also in line with observations of Sardar et al. (1998) who found that a mixture of herbs supplementation (50 mg/g) improved the in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) of concentrate mixture, oat fodder and concentrate mixture + oat fodder. Kumar et al. (2006) also reported significant (P<0.05) improvement in IVDMD from the substrate when mixed with Asparagus racemosus, Cryptolepis buchanani, Eurphorbia hirta and Urtica dioica.

The statistical analysis of data revealed significant (P<0.01) effect of herbs as feed additive on IVTGP (Table 3). In vitro total gas production at 24 h incubation were highest (P<0.01) at 4% level of Shatavari and 3% level of Brahmi, Bhringraj and Jiwanti supplementation in the complete feed.

Table 3: In vitro total gas production (ml/200mg) in complete feed containing different levels of herb at 24h incubation

Herbs Treatment Groups SEM
T0 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5
Shatavari 20.20a 21.50b 22.80c 29.10e 32.00f 26.90d 0.32
Brahmi 20.20a 23.50b 27.40c 32.20e 28.80d 28.60d 0.37
Bhringraj 20.20a 21.30b 24.50c 28.60e 28.50e 25.90d 0.26
Jiwanti 20.20a 20.10a 22.30b 26.50c 23.40b 22.40b 0.27

Mean with different superscripts in a row differs significantly.

The increase in total gas production appeared to be associated with higher DM and OM degradability in herb supplemented groups due to increase in bacterial number and activity, rate of fermentation might have increased in herb supplemented groups and hence total gas production was increased in present study. These results corroborate well with earlier report, where higher production of total gas observed due to herbal feed additive supplementation (Bakshi et al., 2004; Patra et al., 2006; Wadhwa and Bakshi, 2006; Ganai et al., 2011; Meel et al., 2016 and Chaturvedi et al., 2016).

Conclusion

The result of in vitro rumen fermentation revealed that Brahmi, Bhringraj and Jiwanti herb at 3% level and Shatavari herb at 4% level in the wheat straw based complete feed could be selected for In vivo efficiency of nutrient utilization in sheep.

Acknowledgment

The authors are thankful to authorities of College of Veterinary and Animal Science, Bikaner (Rajasthan) for providing necessary facilities and financial support to conduct this research.

 

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