<b><i>In vitro</i> evaluation of palm fronds as feedstuff on ruminal digestibility and gas production

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate using palm fronds only or supplemented with fibrolytic enzymes as alternative roughage on the ruminal nutrients digestibility and gas production. Treatments were: clover hay (Trifolium alexandrinum), palm fronds only and palm fronds plus fibrolytic enzymes (enzymes were mixed with palm fronds in rate of 4 g kg-1 of dry matter (DM). The results showed a reduction (p < 0.05) in gas production, ammoniac nitrogen (NH 3-N, DM and organic matter (OM) digestibility in palm fronds compared with clover hay. While supplementing palm fronds with fibrolytic enzymes improved DM and OM digestibility compared with palm fronds only without (p < 0.05) differences with clover hay. Also, supplementing palm fronds with fibrolytic enzymes reduced (p < 0.05) gas production compared with other treatments. It could be concluded that adding fibrolytic enzymes improved the utilization of palm fronds as alternative roughage without negative effect on nutrients digestibility and reduced gas production which improve the environmental aspects of feeding ruminant animals.

Enhancing the Utilization of Palm Leaf Hay Using Bacillus subtilis and Phanerochaete chrysosporium in the Diet of Lambs Under Desert Conditions

“…Pascual et al (2000) reported that date palm leaves contain low CP content (less than 17 g/kg DM) and high crude fibre content (332 g/kg DM). Moreover, date palm leaves have high levels of cellulolytic components, containing 427 to 724 g of NDF and 254 to 523 g of ADF per kg DM (Abd El Tawab et al, 2016;Khattab et al, 2018). The variation depends on the growing season, the stage of maturity, and the part of the leaf (Medjekal et al, 2011).…”

“…Similar to most agricultural by-products, the chemical composition, low nutritive value and low digestibility of palm leaves limits the utilization of these leaves as feed for animals (Abd El Tawab et al, 2016). Date palm leaves contain approximately 5-7% crude protein (CP) in terms of DM (Medjekal et al, 2011;Abd El Tawab et al, 2016); however, some studies (Ziaei et al, 2009;Khattab et al, 2018) have reported 10.6-16.5% CP content. Moreover, date palm fronds have high levels of cellulolytic components, ranging from 42.7-72.4% neutral detergent fibre (NDF) (Abd El Tawab et al, 2016;Khattab et al, 2018).…”

Effect of mixture of herbal plants on ruminal fermentation, degradability and gas production

“…After 48h of incubation, gas production (GP) was recorded using the pressure reading technique according to Khattab and Tawab (2018) bottles were uncapped, pH was determined using Hanna digital pH meter, 0.8 mL of strained ruminal fluid was mixed with 0.2 mL of a solution containing 250 g of metaphosphoric acid L -1 for SCFA analysis by titration, after steam distillation of a 4 mL sample, by the method of Annison (1954). Contents were filtrated of each bottle to obtain the non-digested residue for determination of degradation percent.…”

“…Using antibiotic in ruminant nutrition as a supplement are widely applied to alter rumen fermentation and methane emission but due to the extreme of using antibiotic led to be resistance against different drugs by animals in addition antibiotics transfer to ruminant product (milk or meat) which could threaten human health (Zhan et al, 2017;Bayat et al, 2018;Khattab, Abd El Tawab, Hadhoud, & Shaaban, 2020). So, European Union (EU) banned using antibiotics as feed additive, this radical change in laws resulted in an intensive development of research that relates to find effective natural compounds that could inhibit GHG and modulate the rumen fermentation (Matloup et al, 2017) Many studies have focused on the alternative strategies development to maintain animal productive performance and health (Khattab, Ebeid, Abd El Tawab, Abo El-Nor, & Aboamer, 2016;Khattab et al, 2017;Khattab & Tawab, 2018;Matloup et al, 2017). Phytogenic feed additives commonly known as phytobiotic, or herbal plants can be defined as source of plant derived products supplemented to animal feeds in order to increase production and enhance performance.…”

Impact of the Essential Oils of Marjoram or Basil Dietary Supplementation on Degradability, Ruminal Fermentation and Total Gas Production in-Vitro

“…After 24 h of incubation, gas production (GP), pH values and NH3-N concentration were analyzed according to Khattab and Abd El Tawab (2018). The amount of dry matter degradability (DMD) was determined according to AOAC (1995).…”