Effect of Mimosa pigra on methane emissions from growing goats

Nguyen Thi Thu Hong^1,2, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Trang³ and Duong Nguyen Khang⁴

¹ An Giang University, An Giang, Vietnam
ntthong@agu.edu.vn
² Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
³ Kien Giang University, Vietnam
⁴ Nong Lam University of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract

Growing goats fed a basal diet of Para grass Brachiaria mutica (Forssk.) increased their voluntary feed intake and produced less methane when they were supplemented with increasing amounts of foliage of Mimosa pigra L. A similar response was observed when water spinach (Ipomea aquatica)  was the basal forage source. The protein in the Mimosa pigra was of low solubility which is attributed to complexes formed with associated phenolic compounds such as tannins that are present in Mimosa pigra. It is hypothesized that the low solubility of the mimosa protein would favour its escape from the rumen and that decrease in the fermentable substrate in the rumen would create conditions less favourable to the formation of methane.

Keywords: bypass protein, climate change, greenhouse gas, tannin

Introduction

Climate change seriously affects ecological balance, human health and sustainable development (Najeh Dali 2008). Methane emissions from ruminants contributes significantly to this process (Martin et al 2008; Watson 2008).

Goat production plays an important role in creating jobs and income, preserving capital and improving nutrition for households. Improving animal performance is the most efficient way to increase food production to meet human needs without increasing land use and greenhouse gas emissions. To develop effectively the goat herds in condition of natural food sources shortage due to land limitation, households not only have to improve quality of goat breeds, the caring and nurturing methods, but they should also use productively the available green food sources in adding to rations to reduce production costs and increase profits for farmers.

Mimosa pigra (Mimosaceae) is originated from Central America (Lonsdale 1992). In Vietnam, local names of Mimosa pigra are Nguu Ma Vuong, Trinh Nu Nhon or Mac co. It is considered as one of the dangerous weed species in tropical wetlands due to superior development (Tran Triet et al 2007). In addition to the solutions to prevent the harm of this kind of tree, there have been studies that use these trees to prevent erosion or make green manure, medicines and feed for livestock. When cutting them to make feed for the goat we should proceed continuously in a short time (30 to 45 days) to reduce the possibility of regeneration and eventually control the growth of tree (Nguyen Thi Thu Hong et al 2008). The implementation of this measure will achieve two goals: providing fodder for livestock, especially goats, and controlling the spreading of Mimosa pigra in nature.

The present research was done to determine the effects of Mimosa pigra on methane production in growing goats fed Para grass Brachiaria mutica (Forssk.) or water spinach spinach Ipomea aquatica (Forssk.) as basal diets.

Material and methods

Location

This experiment was carried out at An Giang University and at the Laboratory of the Department of Animal Sciences, College of Agriculture and Applied Biology, Can Tho University.

Design and treatments

Experiment 1

Effect of Mimosa pigra on methane production for growing goats fed basal diets of Para grass on Para grass basal diet

Four male crossbred goats (Bachthao x local) with an initial weight of 11.5 ± 0.42 kg were allocated in a 4 x 4 Latin Square designed to study the effect of Mimosa pigra on methane production from a basal diet of Para grass. The four treatments were: 0, 9, 17 and 26% of Mimosa pigra per kg diet DM (estimated to contain the (equivalent to 0, 10, 20 and 30 g/kg diet DM of tannin.

Experiment 2

Effect of Mimosa pigra on methane production of growing goats fed a basal diet of water spinach basal diet.

The design and procedure was the same as in Experiment 1 but with water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) replacing Para grass.

Feeds and management

(Experiments 1 and 2)

New feed was be offered two times daily at 08:00 and 16:00. Mimosa was harvested at an interval of 50 - 60 days (Nguyen Thi Thu Hong et al 2008) from a natural stand near the research farm.

Each of the experimentalperiods  lasted 15 days. During the first 7 days, goats were adapted to the new diets. The next eight days, pooled samples of feed offered ang refused from the metabolic trial was subject to preliminary processing and preserved for subsequent chemical analysis. The feed offered and refused were be analyzed for dry matter (DM) by drying at 105⁰C for 24 hrs and crude protein (CP) by Kjeldahl technique (AOAC 1990).

The solubility of the protein of para grass, water spinach and Mimosa was determined by shaking 3 g of dried samples in 100 ml of 1M NaCl for 3h then filtering through Whatman No. 4 filter paper and determining the N content of the filtrate (Whitelaw and Preston 1963).

The goats were individually housed in metabolism cages in champers designed to measure methane emissions from goats. The chamber system was designed to measure methane released by sheep (Abdalla et al 2012). Inside the glass chamber (1.3 m x 1.3 m x 0.9 m) was a wooden cage with feeding and drinking troughs. A small fan was placed inside the chamber to circulate the air to keep temperature and carbon dioxide at comfortable levels for the animal. The chamber had two air inlets and one exhaust pipe connected to an exhaust pump which in turn was connected to the rear orifice in order to remove the inner air at a flow rate of 50 L/min. The air flow in the chamber was measured by a gas meter, (Model G16, Hangzhou Beta Gas Meter Co., Ltd., China). The air in the respiratory chamber was collected every 1 hour for 24 hours. Methane concentration in sampled gas was determined using a Greenhouse Gas Analyzer, model number 908 - 0011.

Total volumes of methane released by goats was determined by the formula:

V_CH4 (l/day) = (C1 – C0) * V/1,000,000 where

- V (l): volumes of methane of 24h.

- C0 (pT): methane concentration outside the chamber

- CI (pT): methane concentration inside the chamber

Photo 1. Gas collection system	Photo 2. Chamber
Photo 3. Greenhouse Gas Analyzer, model number 908 - 0011	Photo 4. Hanging the Mimosa foliage above the feed trough

Rumen liquor was taken from each animal by esophageal tube on the last day of each period of experiment at 3 hours after offering feed. The pH of these samples was measured immediately using a digital pH meter. Ammonia-N concentration of rumen fluid was determined according to the micro – Kjeldahl procedure (AOAC 1990). Blood was sampled from all ewes by venipuncture at 9:00 on day 15 of the trial.

Statistical analysis

All data were stored with MS Excel software and were analyzed by software of Minitab 16 (© 2010).

Results and discussion

Experiment 1.

As expected, the intake of DM and crude protein the increased as Mimosa levels increased (Table 4).

These was a negative linear relationship between the tannin level provided by the Mimosa pigra and the production of methane (Table 5; Figure 1).

Experiment 2.

Effect of Mimosa pigra on methane production from goats fed water spinach

The effects of Mimosa pigra addition to water spinach was similar to that observed with Para grass (Table 6 and 7) but degree of reduction of methane was less (Figure 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Effect on methane production from goats of adding Mimosa pigra to a basal diet of Para grass and concentrate	Figure 2. Effect on methane production from goats of adding Mimosa pigra to a basal diet of Water spinach and concentrate

Discussion

Many researchers have reported that the feeding of tannin-rich foliages to ruminants leads to reduced production of enteric methane (Animut et al 2008; Dias - Moreira et al 2013; Tiemann et al 2008; Carulla et al 2005; Tavendale et al 2005) suggested two modes of action of tannins on methanogenesis: directly affecting activity or population of methanogens, resulting in lower methane emission and indirectly by reduced hydrogen production by lowering feed degradation

A more likely explanation is that the protein in Mimosa pigra is closely linked with the tannin (and other phenolic compounds?) making it less soluble in rumen fluid resulting in a more efficient enzymatic digestion in the intestine (and consequently less methane being produced). Potentially fermentable substrate escaping from the rumen with the protein would not lead to more methane being produced as fermentation in the cecum colon is acetogenic, not methanogenic (Demeyer  1991). It has been shown in several in vitro studies ( Sangkhom et al 2020; Sina and Preston 2021) that when a substrate is less digested(producing less gas), the methane content of the gas is reduced.  

Conclusions

• Growing goats fed a basal diet of Para grass (Bricharia mutica) and concentrates increased their voluntary feed intake and produced less methane when they were supplemented with increasing amounts of foliage of Mimosa pigra. A similar response was observed when water spinach was the basal forage source.
  The protein in the Mimosa pigra was of low solubility which is attributed to complexes formed with associated phenolic compounds such as tannins that are present in Mimosa pigra
  
  
• It is hypothesized that the low solubility of the mimosa protein would favour its escape from the rumen ad the decrease in a fermentable substrate in the rumen would create conditions less favourable to the formation of methane

References

Abdalla A L, Louv andini H, Sallam S M A, Bueno I C S, Tsai S M and Figueira A V O 2012 In vitro evaluation, in vivo quantification and microbial diversity studies of nutritional strategies for reducing enteric methane production. Tropical Animal Health Production 44: 953-964.

Animut G, Puchala R, Goetsch A, Patra A, Sahlu T, Varel V and Wells J 2008 Methane emission by goats consuming different sources of condensed tannins. Animal Feed Science and Technology 144: 228–241.

AOAC 1990 Official Methods of Analysis , 15^th edition. Association of the Official Analytical Chemists, Washington D.C.

Carulla J.E, Kreuzer M, Machmuller A and Hess H D 2005 Supplementation of Acacia mearnsii tannins decreases methanogenesis and urinary nitrogen in forage-fed sheep. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 56: 961-970.

Demeyer D 1991 Differences in stoichiometry between rumen and hindgut fermentation. Adv. 1023 Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition 22:50-66

Dias-Moreira G, Tavares-Lima P M, Oliveira-Borge B, Primavesi O, Longo C, McManu C, Abdalla A and Louvandini H 2013 Tropical tanniniferous legumes used as an option to mitigate sheep enteric methane emission. Tropical Animal Health Production 45: 879-882.

Kaneko J J, Harvey J W, Bruss M L 2008 Clinical Biochemistry of Domestic Animals 6th Ed., Academic Press.

Latimer K S, Duncan & Prasse's 2011 Veterinary Laboratory Medicine: Clinical Pathology 5th Ed., Wiley-Blackwell

Lonsdale W M 1992 The biolagy of Mimosa pigra .L”, In Haley, K.L.S. (1992), A guide to the management of Mimosa pigra, CSIRO Canberra Pp:8-32.

Martin C, Rouel J, Jouany J P, Doreau M, Chilliard Y 2008 Methane output and diet digestibility in response to feeding dairy coT crude linseed, extruded linseed, or linseed oil. Journal Animal Sciences 86: 2642-2650

Minitab 2010 Minitab Reference Manual , Release 16.1 for WindoT. Minitab Inc., USA.

Najeh Dali 2008 Principal guidelines for a National Climate Change Strategy: Adaptation, mitigation and international solidarity Pp:1-5. In Proceedings of International Conference on Livestock and Global climate Change 2008 , Editors: P Rowlinson, M Steele and A Nefzaoui Hammamet, Tunisia Cambridge Univesity press, May, 2008

Nguyen Thi Thu Hong, Vo Ai Quac, Tran Thi Kim Chung, Bach Van Hiet, Nguyen Thanh Mong and Phan The Huu 2008 Mimosa pigra for growing goats in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Volume 20, Article #208. Retrieved March 8, 2013, from http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd20/12/hong20208.htm

Tavendale M H, Meagher L P, Pacheco D, Walker N, Attwood G T and Sivakumaran S 2005 Methane production from in vitro rumen incubations with Lotus pedunculatus and Medicago sativa, and effects of extractable condensed tanin fractions on methanogenesis. Animal Feed Science and Technology 123: 403-419

Tiemann T T, Lascano C E, Wettstein H-R, Mayer A C, Kreuzer M and Hess H D 2008 Effect of the tropical tannin-rich shrub legumes Calliandra calothyrsus and Flemingia macrophylla on methane emission and nitrogen and energy balance in growing lambs. Animal 2: 790–799

Tran Triet, Le Cong Kiet, Nguyen Thi Lan Thi and Pham Quoc Dan 2007 The invasion by Mimosa pigra of wetlands of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. [on-line]. Available from: http ://www.ento.csiro.au/weeds/pdf/mimosa_symposium/07Trietetal.pdf

Sangkhom I, Preston T R, Ngoan L D and Phung L D 2020 Effect of yeast-fermented rice and rice distillers’ byproduct on methane production in an in vitro rumen incubation of ensiled cassava root, supplemented with urea and leaf meal from sweet or bitter varieties of cassava. Livestock Research for Rural Development. Volume 32, Article #52. http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd32/3/intha32052.html

Silanikove N, Gilboa A, Nitsan Z and Perevolotsky A 1996 Effect of a daily supplementation of polyethylene glycol on intake and digestion of tannin-containing leaves (Quercus calliprinos, Pistacia lentiscus and Ceratonia siliqua) by goats. Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry 44: 199-205.

Sina V and Preston T R 2021 Methane production in vitro rumen incubation of ensiled cassava root and urea is reduced by supplementation with low levels of Brewers’ spent grains and by supplementation with cassava foliage rather than water spinach. Livestock Research for Rural Development. Volume 33, Article #45. http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd33/3/sina3345.html.

Watson R 2008 Climate Change: An environmental, develoTent and security issue. Pp: 6-7. In Proceedings of International Conference on Livestock and Global climate Change, 2008, Editors: P Rowlinson, M Steele and A Nefzaoui,17-20 May, 2008, Hammamet, Tunisia Cambridge Univesity press, May, 2008

Whitelaw F G and Preston T R 1963 The nutrition of the early-weaned calf III. Protein solubility and amino acid composition as factors affecting protein utilization Animal Production / Volume 5 / Issue 02 / June 1963, pp 131 – 145 DOI: 10.1017/S0003356100021620, Published online: 02 September 2010. http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0003356100021620