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Material and methodsPods yield; Pods falling from eight trees of E. cyclocarpum available at two commercial livestock farms were manually collected and weighed weekly until pod production stopped to obtain productivity and availability. In vivo dry matter digestibility; Five male Pelibuey sheep of 32 kg live weight housed in metabolic crates were fed increasing levels of E. cyclocarpum ground pods in the ration in a 5 3 5 Latin Square design. Levels of incorporation of E. cyclocarpum pods were 0 (control; concentrate based ration), 20, 30, 40 and 50% of ration dry matter. The rest of the ration was composed of sorghum grain, soybean meal, cane molasses and minerals. Animal performance; In a commercial sheep farm forty male Pelibuey sheep of 20.6 kg live weight were allocated randomly to one of two groups of 20 sheep each and fed either a 1) commercial concentrate ration (pelleted; 17% CP), or 2) ration containing 50% dry matter as ground pods of E. cyclocarpum mixed with ground corn, soybean meal, cane molasses and minerals. Sheep were fed ad libitum for 42 days and weight gain was recorded every 14 days after 18 h fast. ResultsEnterolobium.cyclocarpum pods had 16% crude protein, 35% neutral detergent fibre and 1.5% ether extract. Average pod production from E. cyclocarpum trees was 86 kg per production cycle. The production of pods from E. cyclocarpum was markedly seasonal, mostly involving the months of April-May. In vitro dry matter digestibility (67%) of E. cyclocarpum pods matched reasonably well with the in vivo dry matter digestibility (71%) of rations fed to sheep containing 40-50% of the DM as ground pods of E. cyclocarpum. No significant differences (P . 0.05) were found for dry matter intake and dry matter digestibility when ground pods of E. cyclocarpum were increased in the ration of hair sheep from 0 to 50% of ration dry matter. No significant differences were found for daily DM intake (776 vs ) and feed conversion efficiency (4.3 vs 4.6 intake gain 21 ) for the concentrate (pelleted) and the E. cyclocarpum (50% of DM) ration fed to Pelibuey sheep in a commercial farm. Weight gain of hair sheep was comparable to that found by Moscoso et al., (1995) in hair sheep (223 g d 21 ) fed 36% of the ration DM as ground pods of E. cyclocarpum. E. cyclocarpum pods have good chemical composition (15-16% CP, 30-35% NDF). Rumen degradability (a 1 b) of DM of E. cyclocarpum pods was high (86%). DM intake (1.2-1.4 kg sheep 21 d 21 ) and DM digestibility (71%) of rations containing E. cyclocarpum pods (50% of DM) are relatively high for hair sheep. Weight gain (239 g/day) and feed conversion efficiency (4.6:1) of rations containing high levels (50% of DM) of pods are reasonable good in hair sheep. Secondary metabolites (saponins) in E. cyclocarpum may reduce protozoa numbers in the rumen and exert a beneficial effect on efficiency of microbial protein synthesis in the rumen (Koenig et al., 2007). ConclusionsThe availability of E. cyclocarpum pods during the dry season (April-May), and their good nutritional value...

The chemical composition, digestibility, and voluntary feed intake by sheep of mango by-products were studied in an experiment with five dietary treatments consisting of mango peels and seed kernels, offered individually or together with urea block and a control. The mango residues were offered with rice straw and the control diet was straw only. Five groups of five male sheep of Djallonké type, 12-18 months old and weighing on average 18.6 kg were allocated randomly to the diets to assess the voluntary feed intake. Apparent digestibility of the same diets was measured using four sheep per diet. The mango residues were low in crude protein, 67 and 70 g/kg dry matter for the peels and the seed kernels, respectively. The content of neutral detergent fiber varied from 306 to 388 g/kg dry matter (DM) for the kernel and the peels, respectively. The kernel had relatively high level of fat (105 g/kg DM) and tannins (29 and 40 g/kg DM of hydrolysable and total tannins, respectively). The highest intake was observed with the diet containing both residues and urea block (741 g/day). The intake of kernels was lower in all diets when offered with the peels than when offered with rice straw alone. Apparent digestibility of the diets containing mango residues was 0.60-0.65. The peels and kernels had high digestibility coefficients (0.74 and 0.70, respectively). Based on the results above, it can be concluded that it would be interesting to test the residues in a growth experiment.

pays sahélien, le problème alimentaire des ruminants, en saison sèche, est préoccupant, en raison de l'état pailleux et sans valeur nutritive de la strate herbacée des parcours naturels. L'amélioration des ressources fourragères est devenue un impératif pour faire face à la diminution quantitative et qualitative de ces parcours due entre autre à la péjoration climatique persistante. Ainsi, l'introduction d'espèces fourragères résistantes bien aux conditions climatiques arides et semi-arides pourrait d'obtenir du fourrage de bonne qualité pour l'alimentation des animaux surtout en saison sèche. L'objectif de l'étude de base est d'évaluer l'effet du type de bouture de l'espèce Opuntia ficus-indica sur la capacité de reprise, l'état de survie et de développement végétatif de la plante sous conditions pluviales en zone nord-soudanienne du Burkina Faso. Les boutures utilisées sont constituées de raquettes sectionnées en trois (03) parties et de raquettes entières âgées de trois (03) mois et récoltées dans un jardin agrostologique sur une population de cent soixante-douze (172) pieds de l'espèce. Le dispositif expérimental a consisté en la plantation des quatre (04) types de bouture : la partie basale (Pb), la partie médiane (Pm), la partie apicale (Pa) et la raquette entière (Re) dans les pots remplis de substrat constitué de un tiers (1/3) de fumier sous forme de poudrette de parc et des deux tiers 2/3 de terreau. La plus grande capacité de reprise des boutures au bout de trois (03) mois (82%) est obtenue avec la bouture partie basale (Pb). Les boutures partie médiane et raquette entière ont donné la valeur la plus faible (60%). Le taux moyen minimal de survie (53%) est obtenu au niveau de la bouture raquette entière (Re). Ces résultats sur la multiplication végétative de l'espèce Opuntia ficus-indica montrent que la section de la raquette en deux parties pour la production des plants en pots avant leur transplantation en plein champ demeure la technique la mieux indiquée pour la production des plants en grande quantité sous conditions pluviales.