Effects of Prosopis juliflora pods meal supplementation on feed utilization, body weight and digestibility in male weaner galla goats

Ratemo H M¹, Gachuiri C K¹, Maina J G¹ and Onyango C M²

¹ Department of Animal Production, University of Nairobi, Kenya
hellenratemo16@gmail.com
² Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection, University of Nairobi, Kenya^1,2P.O. Box 29053-00625, Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the effects of supplementing the diets of weaner Galla goats with different levels of Prosopis juliflora pods meal on feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and diet digestibility. Twenty-four male weaner Galla goats of approximately 18 kg live weight (18±1.9sd) were purchased from the local market and were randomly assigned to four treatment groups with six goats assigned to each dietary treatment. Ground Prosopis pods (Pp) meal was fed at different levels of 0g/d Pp, 100g/d Pp, 200g/d Pp and 300g/d Pp for the 4 experimental groups comprising Treatment (P0) (control), P100, P200 and P300 respectively. The Feed Intake (FI), Weight Gain (WG) and diet digestibility of goats on P300 were (p<0.05) higher than TR1. It was concluded that 300g/d of Prosopis pods meal can be supplemented to male weaner Galla goats since it improves FI, WG and CP digestibility.

Keywords: average daily gain, diet digestibility, feed conversion ratio, feed intake

Introduction

In Kenya, the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) have reported low livestock productivity mainly due to challenges of feed supply and insufficient protein sources for livestock during dry seasons (Kandie 2022). Most livestock that are kept in ASALs have a high adaptive capacity to harsh climatic conditions (Mabhuye et al 2015). Goats are reared by most farmers in ASALs since they can obtain their nutritional requirements from the available natural forages. Prosopis juliflora pods has a high crude protein content of 127g/kg, crude fibre content of 254g/kg, ether extract content of 26g/kg and ash content of 48g/kg which makes it a good feed supplement compared to most feed resources found in ASALs (Kandie 2022). Koech et al (2010) reported improvements in productivity and growth rate when Prosopis juliflora pods were supplemented in livestock diets. Although Prosopis juliflora plants are abundant and invasive in ASALs, their potential use as livestock feed has not been fully exploited. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of supplementation with different levels of Prosopis juliflorapods meal on feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and diet digestibility of male weaner Galla goats.

Materials and Methods

Study Area and Experimental Animals

The feeding trial was conducted at the University of Nairobi farm located in Kibwezi, Makueni County, Kenya, at 2.4105° S, 37.9678° E, between May-September, 2022. Twenty-four male weaner Galla goats of approximately 18kg liveweight (18±1.9sd) were purchased from the local market for the experiment. Prior to initiation of the feeding trial, the goats were acclimatized to experimental conditions for 14 days before the start of the 90-day feeding trial. At the end of the experimental period, the goats were prepared for a 5-day diet digestibility trial. They were ear tagged to allow for individual identification, treated with Ivermectin InjectionÒ and washed with TriatixÒ Stock Spray to eliminate both internal and external parasites. They were also injected with OxytetracyclineÒ on arrival as a precaution to prevent the occurrence of latent bacterial infections due to stress.

Experimental diets

Experimental diets consisted of a basal ration of Cenchrus ciliaris grass hay (Buffel grass hay) fed ad-libitum, 50g maize germ cake, 50g cotton seed cake and different levels of milled Prosopis juliflora pods. The experimental animals were randomly allocated to the 4 treatments and housed indoors in cubicles measuring 2 m by 1.5 m, each holding 2 goats. Each experimental diet was allocated to 6 goats housed in groups of two to make three replicates per diet. Water and minerals were provided ad-libitum(Table 1). Feed intakes were recorded daily, body weights were taken weekly, while Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) was also calculated by dividing the total dry matter intake by the weight gain of the goats during the feeding trial. The diet digestibility trial was conducted for 7 days.

Chemical analysis

Proximate and Van Soest analysis

The Dry Matter (DM), Organic Matter (OM), Crude Protein (CP) and ash, were determined using the proximate method (AOAC 2005). The Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF) and Acid Detergent Fibre (ADF) content were determined according to the procedure described by Van Soest et al (1991).

Acid insoluble ash

Determination of Acid Insoluble Ash (AIA) was carried out following the method described by van Keulen and Young (1977). To calculate the acid-insoluble ash content on DM basis. Equation was used:

Determination of diet apparent digestibility

The apparent dry matter and nutrient digestibility

This formula takes into account the nutrient content of the diet and faeces as well as the concentration of indicator (AIA) in both the diet and faeces (Liu 2022).

Statistical Analysis

Data was subjected to analysis of variance using GenStat 14th Edition (Version 7.4, 2021) software. Differences at (p<0.05) between treatment means were detected, Tukey's test was used to compute significant treatment means.

Results

Chemical composition

The chemical composition of the ingredients used during the feeding trial are shown in Table 2 below.

Feed intake, weight gain and FCR

There were (p<0.05) differences between treatment groups in WG and FI. The highest feed intake (754g/d) was recorded for Treatment (P300) and the lowest in the control group (543g/d). The highest weight gain was recorded among goats fed on P300 (69g/d) while the lowest was recorded in the control group (25g/d) for the 56-day feeding trial. The lowest FCR was recorded in P300 (12) and the highest for the control group (27) Table 4. The findings of this study show that the inclusion of Prosopis juliflora pods meal in diets of goats fed on a basal diet of Buffel grass hay had effect (p<0.05) on their body weight gain and feed intake.

Figure 1. Feed intake is increased with a curvilinear trend as the feeding level of prosopis pod was increased

The control group had the lowest (p<0.05) dry matter intake (192g/d) compared to the supplemented groups which had dry matter intakes of 244, 294 and 350g/d (Table 3).

supplemented with different levels of Prosopis juliflora pods meal

Figure 2. The average daily weight gain of male weaner Galla goats is increased with a curvilinear trend as the feeding level of prosopis pod was increased	Figure 3. Feed conversion ratio is decreased with a curvilinear trend as the feeding level of prosopis pod was increased 56 days

The highest feed intake (754g) was recorded for P300 where the basal diet was supplemented with 300g of Prosopis and the lowest in the control group (543g) Table 4.

Digestibility of nutrients

The digestibility of nutrients in the diets supplemented with Prosopis juliflora pods meal are shown in (Table 5)

Goats fed on treatment (P300) diet had the highest DM digestibility of 66% which was different (p<0.05) from P100 (53%) and TR1 (39%), but not different (p>0.05) from P200 (65%) Table 5.

Crude protein digestibility also differed between treatments, where goats fed on treatment 4 had the highest crude protein digestibility. The digestibility was significantly higher than that of goats fed on the control diet (no Prosopis) (55.3%) and those fed on treatment 2 with a low level of prosopis (64.8%). The trend in Crude fibre digestibility closely followed that of crude protein. NDF and ADF digestibility had a similar trend where treatments 1 and 2 had similar digestibility of those fibres, while the digestibility of NDF was different (p>0.05) between 3 and 4 (Table 5).

Discussion

Chemical Composition

The chemical composition of the ingredients used during the feeding trial is shown in Table 3. The CP content of the ingredients was 24.2, 8.5, 6.4 and 10.8% for cotton seed cake, maize germ cake, Buffel grass hay and prosopis respectively (Table 2). These values were close to those reported from previous studies of 24.5 for cotton seed cake (Barman et al 2017), 7.6 for maize germ (Heuzé et al 2015), 5.6 for buffel grass (Kilyenyi et al 2023) and 13% for prosopis pod meal (Shaker et al 2014). The CP content of Prosopis juliflorapods (11%) in this study was lower compared to a previous study conducted by Kipchirchir et al 2014 who reported 19% CP and Kidane et al (2020) who reported 18% CP. Another study reported a lower CP of 6% (Sciammaro et al 2016). The difference could be influenced by the time of harvesting the pods (Kipchirchir et al (2014), the soil type and fertility in terms of the nitrogen content of the soil Kavila et al (2020) and also the postharvest handling method employed such as sorting and storage (Meyer-Rochow et al 2021)

The CF of the ingredients were 35, 31, 30 and 8 % for Buffel grass hay, Prosopis juliflora pod meal, cotton seed cake and maize germ cake, respectively (Table 2). The values were close to other studies,35 % for Buffel grass hay (Kirwa et al 2020), 26% for cotton seed cake (Thakur et al 2019) and 8% for maize germ cake (Ciurescu et al 2014). However, the CF of Prosopis (31%) in the current study was high compared to the CF content reported by Al-Marzooqi et al (2023) which was 13%. The difference in CF could be influenced by the genetic diversity of Prosopis juliflora genotypes Al-Soqeer et al (2023), seasons and age of pods at the harvesting of prosopis pods (Armijo-Nájera et al 2019)

Feed intake, weight gain and FCR

In the current study, P300 had the highest DM (350g) intake Table 3. A study by Pena-Avelino et al (2020) who supplemented Creole goats with Corn maize, Soybean meal and fed Corn stover as a basal diet and reported dry matter intakes of 604, 608 and 615g for goats supplemented with 0, 300, 600g prosopis respectively. The increased feed intake observed as the amount of P. juliflorapods meal was increased could be due to high CP present in prosopis resulting in increased rumen microbial activity hence more rapid degradation of the basal diets leading to high intakes. Also improved digestibility would result in increased intake due to faster rumen emptying time (Huhtanen et al 2016). A study was conducted by Sirohi et al (2017) on the effect of feeding ground Prosopis juliflora pods on the performance of Mwarari and Sirohi-growing goats fed on lentil fodder, wheat bran, cluster bean meal and Tumba seed cake. They reported an increased total dry matter intake (4.7kg/100kg) body weight on goats fed 50% ground Prosopis juliflora pods compared to those on the control which had an intake of 4.5kg/100kg body weight. They also reported that increased feed intake could be attributed to the high palatability of ripe mature prosopis pods rich in sucrose, glucose and fructose contents that give the animals a sweet taste (Pena-Avelino et al 2014). However, a study on the performance of Shami goats fed on Leucaena leucocephala, alfalfa, Acacia saligna and Prosopis juliflora diet (Helal et al 2018) reported reduced feed intake (69g/kg) in goats that were fed 25% Prosopis juliflora than those in the control group which had a feed intake of 109g/kg. Reduced feed intake could be attributed to high prosopis levels of fiber which are highly associated with reduced rumen microbial activity (Almeida et al 2020)

A study by Hassen et al (2017) on the effect of supplementing pounded P. juliflora pods on Afar goats fed on Blue panicgrass (Panicum antidotale) hay and P. juliflora reported feed intakes of 516, 509, 475 and 469g for goats fed 0, 150, 300 and 450g of prosopis respectively. The feed intake reduction as levels of prosopis increased could be due to phenolic compounds leading to a decrease in palatability and hence low feed intake (Hassen and Bediye 2015).

The highest weight gain (69g/d) was recorded for P300 for goats fed on 300g day of Prosopis while the lowest was recorded in the control group (27g/d) Table 4 . The average daily gain observed in the treatment groups could be attributed to the additional crude protein (CP) provided by the pod meal offered to the animals. A study by Kipchirchir et al (2014) investigated the use of P. juliflora pods as a livestock feed supplement where the treatment groups were fed a basal diet of hay and supplemented with 100g, 200g and 400g of Prosopis pods meal. The study reported the highest total body weight gain of 4 kg in goats given 200g of Prosopis pod meal while the goats given 400g of prosopis pods meal showed the lowest total weight gain (3 kg) among the treatment groups. They reported further that the weight gain observed in the treatment of 200g/d was attributed to the higher CP content which led to higher hay intake thereby increasing the growth rate.

The lowest (best) FCR (12) was observed in goats fed P300 and the highest FCR (27) was recorded in the control group (Table 4). As the amount of prosopis pod meal offered to the goats increased, it led to an increase in feed intake, average daily weight gain and reduced FCR. A similar study by Kipchirchir et al (2014) investigated the use of P. juliflora pods meal as a feed supplement in ASALs in Kenya and reported that the treatment group offered 200g of prosopis pods meal had the best FCR of 7.85 and the control group offered 0g of prosopis pods meal had the highest FCR of 36.9.

Digestibility of nutrients

In the current study P300 also had the highest CP digestibility at 74% followed by P200 (69%) and then P100 (65%) and they were (p<0.05) higher than the control group (55%). The treatment groups that were offered the highest amount of P. juliflora pods meal in their diets had the highest CP digestibility (Table 5). This observation could be attributed to the tannin content found in P. juliflora pods which reduced the microbial breakdown of protein in the rumen and increased protein flow into the abomasum.

The current study reported that P300 had the highest CF digestibility of 58% followed by P200 (37%) and then P100 (32%) compared to the control group (19%) table 5. The CF digestibility was (p<0.05) affected by the level of P. juliflora pods meal supplemented in the goats’ diets. The findings of this study could be attributed to the fact that the pods contain a high amount of CF% which also increased as the level supplemented increased but this also increased the CP% of the diets resulting in increased microbial activity in the rumen thus improving CF digestibility as the level of P. juliflorapods meal increased. However, according to Wanjohi (2019), when the level of P. juliflora pods meal is increased, the level of CF in the diet also increased. This affected the efficiency of feed utilization especially for nutrients such as proteins and fatty acids and reduced the enzyme activity on the available

Conclusions

Prosopis juliflorapods meal supplementation at 300g/d resulted in improved feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and feed digestibility of male weaner Galla goats.

Acknowledgment

Sincere acknowledgment to the Earth observation and environmental sensing for climate-smart sustainable agropastoral ecosystem transformation in East Africa (ESSA) for funding the work.

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