Effect of different levels of fresh water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) in the diets on feed utilization and digestibilty, rumen parameters and microbial protein synthesis in goat

Nguyen Van Thu and Nguyen Thanh Van

Cantho University, Vietnam
nvthu@ctu.edu.vn

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate effects of different fresh water hyacinth (WH) levels replacing para grass in the diets on nutrient digestibility, rumen parameters, microbial nitrogen synthesis and nitrogen retention of growing goats. Four female goats were arranged in a Latin-square design with four treatments, which included fresh water hyacinth levels replacing Para grass at levels of 25, 50, 75 and 100% in the diets (DM basis). Soybean cake and urea were supplemented in all the diets to adjust the dietary CP intake of 6 gCP/kgBW per day.

The results showed that The daily DM intake among the treatment approached a statistically siginicant difference (P=0.057) and were of 494, 464, 432, 408 g for the WH25, WH50, WH75 and WH100 treatment, respectively. While the other nutrient intakes were significantly different (P<0.05) among the diets and tentded to decrease when increasing the WH in the diets. Rumen N-NH­₃ and VFAs concentration proportionally decreased when increasing water hyacinth in the diets. No significant difference was found in term of the apparent nutrient digestibility and nitrogen retention (P>0.05). The daily weight gain was 48.2, 47.3, 46.5  and 37.5 g for WH25, WH50, WH75 and WH100 treatments, respectively. Purine derivative and microbial N were not significantly different (P>0.05) but tended to increase when goats were fed lower water hyacinth levels in the diets. The conclusion was that fresh water hyacinth could replace Para grass in the goat diets up to 75% without any negative effects.

Keyword: water hyacinth, goat, intake, rumen parameters, digestion, nitrogen retention, microbial protein synthesis

Introduction

In Mekong delta, goat production is primarily in small-holder households to enhance their economy. Goats can increase production in short period of time, require little capital investment and utilize local forages and agricultural by-product resources with low nutrients. Moreover goat meat and milk  diversify human food sources in the region. However, the potentials of economy development from goat have not been exploited. Recently, feed sources  for raising goats are mainly native or planted grasses i.e. Para grass, Sesbania grandiflora, Elephant grass, aquatic plants, etc and agro-industrial by-products such as banana trunk, citrus wastes, rice bran, tofu waste, sweet potato peels, etc. Water hyacinth (WH) has a large biomass in Mekong delta. It has been developing rapidly in surface of rivers, ponds and lakes affect economy and life environment (Kusemiju  and  Chizea, 1992). It was evaluated high quality protein source (Taylor, 1969) to feed ruminants. Therefore, the objective of this study to evaluate effects of different fresh water hyacinth levels in the diets on nutrient digestibility, rumen parameters, microbial nitrogen synthesis and nitrogen retention of growing goats for a recommendation of feeding application.

Materials and methods

Location and duration

The experiments were carried out in the experimental farm of Department of Animal Husbandry, College of Agriculture and Applied biology, Can Tho University from January to May in 2009.

Experimental design

Four growing female goats of six months of age were arranged in a Latin-square design with 4 treatments, which included fresh water hyacinth levels replacing Para grass at levels of 25, 50, 75 and 100% in the diets (DM basis). Soybean cake and urea were supplemented in all the diets to adjust the dietary CP intake of 6 gCP/kgBW per day (Nguyen Dong Hai, 2008).

Chemical analyses

Feeds and refusals were daily measured. Urine was collected for nitrogen analysis to calculate the nitrogen retention. Rumen fluid was collected for determination of pH, total volatile fatty acids (VFA) and ammonia. Samples were taken  3 h after the morning feed  on the last day of each period using a stomach tube

The feeds and refusals were taken for analyses of DM, OM, CP, EE, NDF, ADF and Ash following procedure of AOAC (1990) and Van Soest et al. (1991), metabolic energy (ME) according to Bruinenberg  et al. (2002). Daily feed intakes, weight gain, and feed conversion ratios were measured and calculated. Apparent DM, OM, CP, EE, NDF and ADF digestibility were employed according Mc Donald et al. (2002). Rumen ammonia concentration was determined by distillation and titration with sulphuric acid. Rumen volatile fatty acids (VFA) were determined by the procedure of Barnett and Reid (1957). Allantoin was determined by the method of Young and Conway (1942), while uric acid was analysed according to the method of Fujihara et al. (1978). The daily production of rumen microbial N was estimated using the formula in the paper by Chen and Gomes (1995).

Statistical analysis   

The data were analyzed by analysis of variance using the ANOVA of General Linear Model of Minitab Reference Manual Release 13.21 (Minitab, 2000).

Results and discussion

The chemical composition of feed ingredients

Table 2 showed that DM content of  water hyacinth (7.0%) was lower than that of para grass (15.5%). The DM content of para grass  in this experiment was higher than the results reported by Danh Mo (2003), probably due to different harvest time. The DM  of water hyacinth of 7.0% was lower than that indicated by Nguyen Thi Dan Thanh (2010) (8.4%). The CP content of water hyacinth (9.5%) was similar to that of para grass (9.4%). Thus water hyacinth can replaced para grass in the basal diets . However, the NDF content of para grass (61.3%) was higher as compared to water hyacinth. The NDF content of para grass in this study was lower than that stated by Nguyen Thi Vinh Chau (2008) (68.8%). Soybean cake and urea were supplement sources for goats. The values of CP, DF and ADF of soybean cake were similar to those reported by Tran Tien Hiep (2009) (42.4, 27.9 and 5.8, respectively). 

Feed and nutrient intakes

The feed and nutrient intake of goat feed different water hyacinth levels was showed in table 3.  In general, increasing water hyacinth level in the diet  reduced  some nutrient intakes. Nutrient  intakes were significantly different among the treatments (P<0.05), while the total DM intake approached the statistically significant difference (P=0.057). The DM intake ranged in from 408 to 494 g/day (2.22- 2.7%BW). This results was lower than the range reported  by Nguyen Van Hon  (2008) being from 2.38 to 3.15%. The CP intake was the highest value for the treatment WH25 (112g/day) and the lowest in the treatment WH100 (104g/day). However, no difference was found among the treatment WH25, WH40 and WH75 (112, 110 and 108 g/day, respectively). The NDF intake significantly (P<0.01) reduced when increasing levels of water hyacinth in the diets  due to lower NDF concentration of  the water hyacinth.

Figure 1: The relationship between proportion of water hyacinth in the diet and DM intake of goats

 The pH value, rumen ammonia and total rumen VFAs

 The results from table 4 indicated that there was no significant difference in term of  pH value, rumen ammonia and total VFAs among the treatments (P>0.05). The pH values of treatments at 0h was similar to those at 3 h after feeding. The evidence indicated that replacing water hyacinth up to level of 100% in the diet did not affect to rumen environment of goat. The results of this study was within the range, which was from 6.22- 6.58 at 3h post-feeding reported  by Nguyen Van Hon (1998) .

At 3h post-feeding, rumen N-NH3 and VFAs concnetrations tended to decreased when the diet increased gradually water hyacinth levels. The N-NH3 concentration ranged from 28.5 -29.8mg/100ml, which was lower than findings by Nguyen Dong Hai (2008) (41-52 mg/100ml). In term of rumen VFAs, the concentration of treatment WH25, WH50, WH75 and WH100 were 87.2, 86.3, 85.7 and 84.6 mmol/litre, respectively.  

Apparent nutrient digestibility

The apparent digestibility of DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF was not significantly different among the treatmnent (P>0.05) and tended to reduced with increasing water hyacinth level in the diets (Figure 2). The DM digestibility decreased gradually from 71.8 to 68.8% when goat consumed more water hyacinth. The value of DM digestibility was higher than that found by Phengvilaysouk and Lampheuy Kaensombath (2006) being from 54.5 to 67.6%. The range of CP digestibility was from 86.4 to 87.3%.  Aregheore (2005) stated that  the ADF digestibility ranged from 63.5 to 70. 3%.  

 Nitrogen balance and retention

Nitrogen intake  decreased significantly (P<0.05) when  increasing water hyacinth level replacing para grass in the diet and the lowest value was 16.6g/day for treatment WH100. This could be explained that the animals had higher nitrogen intakes in the WH25 diet than other diets, because of a large of para grass consumed, which was higher CP than water hyacinth.  Nitrogen retention was significantly different (P<0.05) among the treatments and the values of treatment WH25,WH50, WH75 and WH100 were 12.2, 12.1,10.3 and 10.3g/day, respectively. The results in  this study was higher than that found in goats by Nguyen Dong Hai (2008) being from 5.57 – 9.95g N/day.

The average weight gain of treatment WH25, WH50, Wh75 and WH100 was 48.2, 47.3, 46.5 and 37.5 g/day respectively Feed convertion ratio was significant different  among the treatments (P<0.05).  When goats was fed from 50 – 75 % of fresh water hyacinth in the diet, FCR was lower than that of  the remains. The FCR in this study was lower  than that resported by Nguyen Van Hon et al. (2008) (49.6 – 53.5g/day) and  Mandal et al. (2005) (100 g/day).

Excretion of purine derivatives, estimated rumen microbial nitrogen production and daily weight gain of goats.

The concentration of urine allantoin tended decreasing when the water hyacinth level was increased in the diets of goat.  However, no significant difference was found among the treatments (P>0.05). This results was similar to the range stated by Nguyen Dong Hai (2008) for growing goats from 3.05 to 4.31 mmol/day. The range of urine allantoin concentration based on metabolic weight was 406–486 µmol/kg W^0.75/day (Table 7). The values in this study were within the range reported by Belenguer et al.  (2002) (128.8 – 620.9µmol/kg W^0.75/day.

Daily purine derivative  was not significantly different (P>0.05) among the treatments, however, it was reduced slightly and gradually when increasing levels of water hyacinth in goat diets. The excretion of purine derivative ranged in 4.48-5.11 mmol/day. The results were the higher than the values of sheep reported by Srinivas et al. (2008) being from 2.55 to  4.91 mmol/day). Similarly the estimated microbial nitrogen was not significantly different among the treatments (P>0.05) and their values tended to decrease from treatment WH25 to WH100. The estimated rumen microbial nitrogen was 3.71, 3.61, 3.45 and 3.25 gN/day for treatment WH25, WH50, Wh75 and WH100, respectively. In Figure 3 also showed that there was a linear relationship between the daily weight gain and the estimated mirobial protein nitrogen (R²=0.843)

Figure 3: The relationship between daily weight gain and estimated microbial nitrogen synthesis of goats fed different water hyacinth levels

Conclusions

• The results of this study indicated that increasing proportion of water hyacinth could replace para grass in the growing goat diets up to 75% did not adversely affect on feed utilization, nutrient digestibility, rumen environment and daily weight gain, but had a better use of water hyacinth biomass as feed resources.  

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