Tropentag, September 17 - 19, 2013 in Stuttgart-Hohenheim "Agricultural development within the rural-urban continuum"

Nutritive Evaluation of Eight Browse Trees in Butana Area, Sudan

¹University of Khartoum, Dept. of Animal Nutrition, Sudan
²University of Khartoum, Dept. of Dairy Production, Sudan

Abstract

This study was conducted during the late rainy season (September – October) to evaluate the proximate composition, mineral content, condensed tannins and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) of eight pasture plant species collected from Butana area, Abu Deleig, Sudan. The browse tree species were, Acacia tortilis, A. mellifera, A. seyal, A. ehrenbergiana, A. nilotica, A. nubica, Ziziphus spina-christi, and Balaneties aegyptica. Twigs from the browse trees species were collected air dried and analysed for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), ash, crude fiber (CF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), lignin, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, manganese, ferrous, zinc, cobalt, selenium, and copper, and compared with general requirement of camels.
The results revealed that the range of CP and CF of browse trees in Butana area were 12.37-26.61% and 19.54-31.11%, respectively. For condensed tannins, Z. spina-christi contained the highest level of tannins (5.2 %), however, B. aegyptiaca contained the lowest level of condensed tannins (0.2%) among the eight tree species studied.The highest IVOMD value was recorded for Z. spina-christi (79.1%) followed by A. mellifera (71.3%).
The calcium and phosphorus contents were relatively low and ranged between 0.68-1.07% and 0.11-0.57%, respectively. Plant species were high in magnesium content except in A. nilotica and Z. spina-christi. The mean values of magnesium lay within the average of 0.27-0.51%. High level content of potassium (1.08-2.56%) and sodium (1.58-2.26%) were recorded. The content of micro-minerals in browse trees was relatively high with 0.13-0.29, 0.27-0.76, 6.67-19.95, 0.31-0.60 and 0.15-0.84 ppm, for Cu, Mn, Fe, Zn and Se, respectively.
As a conclusion most of plant species in Butana area which examined in the present study may provide a considerable part of camels demand for energy, crude protein, and macro and micro minerals.

Keywords: Browse trees, Butana area, chemical composition, in vitro digestibility, late rainy season, mineral content, Sudan, tannins

Contact Address: Abdelnasir Fadelelseed, University of Khartoum, Fac. of Animal Production, Dept. of Animal Nutrition, Khartoum, Sudan, e-mail: nasir.fadelgmail.com