R. Bhar

Nutrient intake, digestibility and performance of Gaddi kids supplemented with tea seed or tea seed saponin extract

Objective An experiment was conducted to determine the nutrient intake, digestibility, microbial protein synthesis, haemato-biochemical attributes, immune response and growth performance of Gaddi kids fed with oat fodder based basal diet supplemented with either tea seed or tea seed saponin (TSS) extract. Methods Eighteen male kids, 7.03±0.16 months of age and 19.72±0.64 kg body weight, were distributed into three groups, T0 (control), T1, and T2, consisting of 6 animals each in a completely randomized design. The kids were fed a basal diet consisting of concentrate mixture and oat fodder (50:50). Animals in group III (T2) were supplemented with TSS at 0.4% of dry matter intake (DMI), and group II (T1) were supplemented with tea seed at 2.6% of DMI to provide equivalent dose of TSS as in T2. Two metabolism trials were conducted, 1st after 21 days and 2nd after 90 days of feeding to evaluate the short term and long term effects of supplementation. Results The tea seed (T1) or TSS (T2) supplementation did not affect DMI as well as the digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fibre, and acid detergent fibre. Nutritive value of diet and plane of nutrition were also comparable for both the periods. However, the average daily gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were improved (p<0.05) for T1 and T2 as compared to T0. The microbial protein supply was also higher (p<0.05) for T1 and T2 for both the periods. There was no effect of supplementation on most blood parameters. However, the triglyceride and low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels decreased (p<0.05) and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol level increased (p<0.05) in T2 as compared with T0 and T1. Supplementation also did not affect the cell mediated and humoral immune response in goats. Conclusion Tea seed at 2.6% of DMI and TSS at 0.4% DMI can be fed to Gaddi goats to improve growth rate, FCR and microbial protein synthesis.

Detannification of Oak (Quercus leucotrichophora) Leaves Through Simple Physical Treatments

Oak (Quercus leucotrichophora) leaves are adequately available as scarcity fodder in North West Himalayan Region of India, but poisoning, even death due to its consumption, limits its use as a sole feed in hill cattle, sheep and goat. Information on easily adaptable technology for detoxification and detannification of leaves are lacking in the literature. Therefore, present experiment was planned for a nutrient protective detoxification and detannification process of Q. leucotrichophora leaves. Five different physical treatments viz., water soaking (12h), sun-drying (5d), shade-drying (5d), chopping and chopping and water soaking of locally collected fresh leaves were done, taking fresh leaves as control. The composition of fresh leaves remained comparable to that of different processed leaves except a small decrease (P<0.05) in total carbohydrate content due to water-soaking and chopping and water-soaking. All the physical treatments were effective in reducing all the polyphenols. Reduction was the maximum for hydrolysable tannins (87.54%), followed by total tannins (70.35%), total phenolics (58.17%), condensed tannins (24.39%) and non-tannin phenolics (1.85%). Maximum reduction in hydrolysable tannin (87.54%) and condensed tannin (24.39%) levels were achieved by chopping combined with water soaking, and least reduction was by shade-drying. On the basis of results, it may be concluded that chopping followed by water soaking would be the best nutrient protective processing technique for detoxification and detannification of Q. leucotrichophora leaves.