Supplementing Tithonia diversifolia with Guinea grass or tree foliages: effects on feed intake and live weight gain of growing goats

                            Ngo Hong Chin and Khuc Thi Hue

Goat and Rabbit Resarch Center, Hanoi, Vietnam
ngohongchin@yahoo.com.vn

Abstract

Bach Thao x Co goats with an initial weight of 18.1 kg and 5.5 months of age were used to study the effects of supplementing Tithonia diversifolia with Guinea grass, fresh cassava foliage,  banana leaves  or jackfruit foliage. 

DM feed intakes were increased by 14 and 25%, and growth rates by 22 and 29%,  when the goats were fed (1% of LW as DM) with fresh foliage of cassava and Jackfruit, respectively, replacing Guinea grass or banana leaves as supplements to a basal diet of ad libitum fresh foliage of Tithonia diversifolia.

Key words: banana leaves, bypass protein, cassava foliage, Jackfruit, tannins

Introduction

Tithonia diversifolia often called Wild sunflower or Mexican sunflower is a member of the family Asteraceae, genus Tithonia and species diversifolia (Henderson 2001). It had been observed to be widely spread in many countries in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Many studies suggest that Tithonia can be used for many different purposes as feed for animals and fish, fuel, compost, land demarcation, soil erosion, building materials and shelter for poultry (Olabode et al 2007) and as a medicine to treat various ailments (Agboola et al 2006) .  

In Vietnam, Tithonia grows wild in the highlands. When Tithonia was planted as a fodder plant in acid soil in the GRRC, with 10 tones manure/ha/year, annual edible biomass yields were about 170 tonnes/ha with a very high crude protein content in the foliage (Nguyen Van Sao et al  2008).

The constraint to the use of Tithonia foliage is thought to be the high solubility of the protein which is quickly fermented in the rumen of goats with poor “bypass” characteristic and hence supporting low N retention (Pathoummalangsy and Preston 2007). Thus it is proposed that growth of goats fed Tithonia foliage will be improved if supplemented with high tannin foliage which will help to bind the protein in the diet, and facilitate the bypass characteristics.

The objective of this study was therefore to test a range of foliages with and without known contents of tannins as supplements to Tithonia fed as the basal diet.

Materials and methods

Location

The experiment was carried out at the Goat and Rabbit Research Center, Sontay, Hanoi, Vietnam, longitude E 105o25 and latitude N 21o06. The altitude is about 220 m above sea level. The climate in this area is tropical monsoon, with a wet season between April and November and a dry season from December to March. Average annual rainfall is 1850 mm. The trial was conducted during August to November, 2011.

Experimental feeds and animals

Tithonia foliage (Tithonia diversifolia) was used as the basal diet. The supplements were: Guinea grass (Panicum maximum), cassava foliage (Manihot esculenta Crantz), jackfruit foliage (Artocarpus heterophyllus) and banana leaves (Musa sapientum L.). All foliages and guinea grass were harvested in the fields 1 to 2 hours before feeding. During spells of rainy weather, the forages were harvested the day before feeding to limit the effects of low DM content. The guinea grass and banana leaves were chopped into pieces of 7-10 cm before feeding by giving in separate feed troughs. The tree foliages were offered by hanging in bunches in front of the feed troughs.

The tree foliages were harvested with the length of the stems from 50 to 60 cm, to facilitate hanging above the feed trough.  The cassava variety used was K98-7 (medium bitter variety).  The crossbred goats (Bach Thao x Co) had an average weight of 18-19 kg/head with an average age of 6 months. Before starting the experiment, the goats were treated against parasites with injections of Ivermectin solution (1 ml per 4 kg BW) and vaccinated against pasteurellosis, enterotoxaemia, foot and mouth disease and goat pox.

Experimental design

Thirty two goats were randomly allocated to four treatments with eight animals (equalized for sex) per treatment in a completely randomized design. The length of the trial was 12 weeks. The goats were given Tithonia foliage as the basal feed (TD) and were supplemented with fresh cassava foliage (CF), guinea grass (GG), banana leaves (BL) or jackfruit foliage (JF).  The Tithonia foliage was fed ad libitum in all treatments. Guinea grass, jackfruit foliage, banana leaves and cassava foliages were fed at 1% of the goat body weight (DM basis).

Management

The goats were kept in separate cages, fed individually and were adapted to the experimental feeds for 10 days before starting the experiment. The feeds were divided into 4 meals per day (7:30; 10:30; 14:30 and 16:30). Mineral lick blocks (510 limestone meal, 210 g bone meal, 170 g cement as a binding agent and 100 g salt) were available ad libitum by hanging on the wall of the pens. Water was given freely via water niples. The experiment lasted for 84 days. The animals were allowed to exercise daily from 14.00 h to 15.00 h. During the exercise time, males and females were separated to avoid mating.  The animals were weighed in the morning before feeding at the start and end of the experiments and at two week intervals. Growth rate, feed intake and feed conversion ratio, were calculated.

Chemical analysis

Feed offered and refused was recorded daily, and samples taken weekly for analysis of DM, then pooled to give monthly samples for further analysis of CP, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and ash. Dry matter and nitrogen were analysed according to the standard methods of AOAC (1990). Neutral detergent fiber was determined by the method of van Soest et al (1991). 

Statistical analysis

The data were analyzed statistically using the GLM procedure of Minitab Software, version 15(Minitab 2008). Treatment means which showed significant differences at the probability level of P<0.05 were compared using Tukey’s pair-wise comparison procedure. The statistical model used in the analysis of the growth trial was:

Yijk = m + Ti + eijk,

where Yijk is the dependent variable, m is the overall mean, Ti is the effect of treatment (diets), and eijk is the random error, independent and normally distributed.

Results and discussion

Tithonia and cassava foliage had the highest content of CP and minerals and lowest content of NDF; Guinea grass had the opposite characteristics (Table 1). Cassava foliage was also rich in CP and low in NDF. Banana leaves had similar CP to Guinea grass but less NDF. Jackfruit foliage had intermediate values for both CP and NDF.   

The intake of Tithonia foliage was increased by supplementation with Jackfruit and cassava foliage as compared with Guinea grass and banana leaves (Table 2). Total DM intake was greatest with Jackfruit foliage followed by cassava foliage with lowest values on Guinea grass and banana leaves. Intake of Tithonia foliage as percentage of total DM intake followed a similar pattern to total DM intake. 

Growth rates were increased by 22 and 29% when Tithonia was supplemented with foliage of cassava and Jackfruit, respectively (Table 3; Figure 1). Banana leaves were no better than guinea grass as a supplement for Tithonia. The improved growth rates with cassava foliage and Jackfruit were due to the higher feed intakes, as DM feed conversion was similar on all treatments. The beneficial effects of cassava foliage as a supplement to basal diets low in true protein are well documented (Ffoulkes and Preston 1978: Ho Quang So et al 2002); however, this is the first report of its use as a supplement to a forage already high in true protein (The tithonia foliage contained 24% crude protein in the DM [Table 1]).  It is hypothesized that the synergistic effect of the cassava foliage combined with Tithonia foliage could have been due the indirect effect of the content of condensed tannins (Hue Khuc Thi 2012 ) in the cassava (by protecting the tithonia foliage protein against degradation by rumen microbes) or the direct effect of the bypass characteristic of the protein in the cassava foliage, or a combination of both effects. The same argument can be applied to the even greater impact of the Jackfruit foliage, which is reported to contain up to 13% of condensed tannins (Kongmanila and Ledin 2009). although much lower in crude protein than the cassava foliage.  

Figure 1. Effect on live weight gain of goats of supplementing ad libitum Tithoniia foliage with Guinea grass, banana leaves or fresh foliage of cassava or Jackfruit

Conclusions

• DM feed intakes were increased by 14 and 25%, and growth rates by 22 and 29%,  when the goats were fed ad libitum fresh foliage of Tithonia diversifolia and were supplemented (1% of LW as DM) with fresh foliage of cassava and Jackfruit, respectively, replacing Guinea grass or banana leaves.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) in funding this experiment as part of the regional MEKARN project.

References

Agboola D, Idowu W and Kadiri  M 2006 Seed germination and seedling growth of the Mexican sunflower Tithonia diversifolia (Compositae) in Nigeria, Africa. Revista de biología tropical 54(2), 395.

AOAC 1990 Association of Analytical Chemists, 15th ed. Official Methods of Analysis, Washington, DC.

Ffoulkes D and Preston T R 1978 Cassava or sweet potato forage as combined sources of protein and roughage in molasses based diets: Effect of supplementation with soybean meal. Tropical Animal Production http://www.utafoundation.org/UTAINFO1/TAP/TAP33/3_3_1.pdf

Henderson L 2001 Alien weeds and invasive plants: a complete guide to declared weeds and invasders in South Africa. Plant Protection Research Institute. Hand book 12.

Ho Quang Do, Vo Van Son, Bui Phan Thu Hang, Vuong Chan Tri and Preston T R 2002 Effect of supplementation of ammoniated rice straw with cassava leaves or grass on intake, digestibility and N retention by goats. Livestock Research for Rural Development. http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd14/3/do143b.htm

Hue Khuc Thi 2012 Feeding cassava foliage to sheep. Diss. (sammanfattning/summary) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., Acta Universitatis agriculturae Sueciae, 1652-6880 ; 2012:4 ISBN 978-91-576-7688-7 [Doctoral thesis] http://pub.epsilon.slu.se/8617/

Kongmanila Daovy and Ledin I 2009  Chemical composition of some tropical foliage species and their intake and digestibility by goats. Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Science. 22 (6) 803-811

Pathoummalangsy K and Preston T R 2008 Effects of supplementation with rumen fermentable carbohydrate and sources of 'bypass' protein on feed intake, digestibility and N retention in growing goats fed a basal diet of foliage of Tithonia diversifolia. Livestock Research for Rural Development. Volume 20, supplement. http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd20/supplement/kham20076.htm

Minitab 2008 Minitab user's guide. Data analysis and quality tools. Release 18.1 for windows. Minitab Inc., Pennsylvania, USA.

Nguyen Van Sao, Nguyen Thi Mui and Đinh Van Binh 2008 Biomass production of Tithonia diversifolia (Wild Sunflower), soil improvement on sloping land and use as high protein foliage for feeding goats.  Proceedings MEKARN Regional Conference 2007: Matching Livestock Systems with Available Resources (Editors: Reg Preston and Brian Ogle), Halong Bay, Vietnam, 25-28 November 2007 http://www.mekarn.org/workshops/prohan/sao.htm

Olabode O S, Ogunyemi Sola, Akanbi W B and Adesina G.O.a.B., P.A 2007 Evaluation of Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsl.) A Gray for Soil Improvement. World Journal of Agricultural Sciences 3(4), 503-507.

Sao N V, Mui N T and Binh D V 2010 Improving edible biomass production of Tithonia diversifolia (Wild Sunflower) and methods for increasing foliage intake and growth rate of goats. Proceeding of MEKARN-SAREC Workshop, Pakse, Laos. http://mekarn.org/workshops/pakse/abstracts/sao_grrc.htm

van Soest P J, Robertson J B and Lewis B A 1991 Methods for dietary fiber, neutral detergent fiber and non-starch polysaccharides in relation to animal nutrition. J. Dairy Science 74, 3583-3597.

Go to top