The effect of crude palm oil on total tract digestibility of pigs fed trichanthera (Trichanthera gigantea H.B.K. Stend) foliage meal 

 

Yelitza Seijas, C González, H Vecchionacce, E Hurtado* and J Ly** 

 

Institute of Animal Production, Faculty of Agronomy, Central University of Venezuela
PO Box 4579, El Limón, Maracay,Venezuela
gonzalezc@agr.ucv.ve 
^*School of Zootechnia, University of Oriente, Maturín, Venezuela 
^**Swine Research Institute, AP 1, Punta Brava, Havana, Cuba
jlyca@yahoo.com 

Abstract

 

A total of 36 crossbred castrate male pigs averaging 32 kg initial weight were employed according to a random block design arranged in a factorial 3x3 experiment to determine total tract digestibility coefficients of diets formulated to contain 0, 10 and 20% of trichanthera (Trichanthera gigantea H.B.K. Stend) foliage meal and 0, 5 and 10% of crude palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) oil. Feed intake was fixed as 0.08 g DM/kg^0.75 per day given in two daily aequal rations. The trichantera foliage meal contained crude protein (Nx6.25) 18.4 and NDF 34.8% in dry basis respectively.

 

There was no significant interaction (P>0.05) between trichanthera foliage meal and crude palm oil in any digestibility index. Overall, digestibility indices were high. Graded levels of either trichanthera foliage meal or crude palm oil had not significant influence on DM, organic matter, NDF, ether extract, N and energy respectively. N and organic matter digestibility of trichanthera as determined by difference were 75.5 and 65.9% respectively, whereas digestible energy accounted for 7.88 kjoule/g DM.

 

It is suggested that trichanthera foliage meal could be introduced up to 20% in diets for growing pigs with no deleterious influence on total tract digestibility indices. The use of palm oil up to 10% can contribute to increase the energy density of the diet.  

Key words:  Pigs, trichanthera foliage, palm oil, digestibility 

 

Introduction

 

In Venezuela, competitiveness of pig production can not be improved to a large extent, since local availability of cereals and soybean are constrained by several facts, including the relatively low efficiency of conventional plant production in a tropical environment, destined to raise farm animals. This constraint determines a local dependence from imported feedstuffs and very low profit to farmers.

 

In recent years, interest of research has been directed toward the study of some tropical foliages to be introduced in diets for monogastric animals, one of the main reasons being its high biomass yield and no harmful effects on growth performance (González 1994). Tropical foliages appear to show a very high potential for synthetic processes in the tropics (Savón 1999). At the same time, the use of tropical foliages could be very convenient for complementing the use of high levels of tropical roots and tubers in diets for pigs. On the other hand, palm oil from (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) can largely be used in tropical rations due to its local availability, thus allowing to neutralize the negative effect of the use of high levels of fibrous materials in diets, by increasing the energy density of feeds (De Basilio 1989).

 

Trichanthera gigantea (H.B.K. Stend), very well known as nacedero or naranjillo in Venezuela, and tricantera in Cuba, is a tropical non legume tree which has a high potential for using in animal production. This assumption is based on several advantages possessed by trichanthera, such as its wide range of adaptation, rusticity, easy reproduction, high biomass yield and relatively high protein content (Nx6.25: 16 to 18% in dry basis), according to Rosales (1997).

 

The use of trichanthera foliage as a feed for pigs has received little attention up to recent days and the available information about the feeding value of trichanthera meal for pigs is somewhat contradictory (Sarría et al 1991; Sarría 1994; Nguyen and Nguyen 1999). In fact, very few is known concerning its nutritive value (Gonzalvo et al 2001; Ly et al 2001), which is one the main factor to be taken into account for the introduction of any new feed resource in pig production based on non conventional basis in the tropics (González 2000). 

 

The aim of the present article is to report studies related to nutritive value of trichanthera foliage meal, and the effect of the introduction of graded levels of palm oil on total tract digestibility coefficients. 

 

Materials and methods

 

A total of 36 crossbred castrate male pigs averaging 32 ± 2 kg initial weight were employed according to a random block design arranged in a 3x3 factorial experiment with four replications per treatment to determine total tract digestibility coefficients of diets formulated to contain 0, 10 and 20% of trichanthera (Trichanthera gigantea H.B.K. Stend) foliage meal and 0, 5 and 10% of Venezuelean crude palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) oil. The details about the trichanthera foliage meal and the composition of the basal diet are listed in Table 1.
 

The trichanthera foliage meal was prepared by dehydration of leaves, petioles and tender tops harvested after 120 days of tree cultivation without fertilization and irrigation (yield, 13.9 tonnes DM/ha). Foliage dehydration was conducted in a closed room at 50^oC during 48 hours. The dry foliage was ground through a 0.5 mm screen then mixed with the other ingredients of the diets.

 

The ingredient composition of the experimental diets is presented in Table 2.

 

 

The nutritive content of the experimental diets is shown in Table 3. The most outstanding aspects to note were the increasing levels of cell walls in the diets with an augmentation of the level of trichanthera foliage meal in the feeds, and at the same time, the increase of the gross energy value of diets with increased levels of dietary palm oil. 

 

 

Feed intake was fixed as 0.08 g DM/kg^0.75 per day given in two daily equal rations prepared by mixing the dry feeds with water in the proportion of 2:1 by weight. Water was provided for ad libitum consumption from low-pressure drinking nipples. The animals were housed in metabolism cages as described by Pekas (1968), in an open stable of the Institute of Animal Production, at Maracay. Each experimental period consisted of five days of adaptation of the animals to the experimental diets, followed by another five days of collection of faeces. Feed refusals if any and faeces were collected two times per day, and conveniently frozen until analysis.

 

Duplicate samples of feed and faeces were analyzed for DM, ash, ether extract and N content following descriptions made by AOAC (1990), whereas NDF was estimated according to Van Soest et al (1991). The gross energy content of the samples was determined in an adiabatic bomb calorimeter, using benzoic acid as calorimetric standard.

 

Contrasts among means were made by the analysis of variance technique (Steel and Torrie 1980). The SAS (1992) computing package was used in all cases.

 

Results and discussion

 

The pigs remained healthy and consumed their experimental meals throughout the trial.

There were no significant (P>0.05) interactions in the factors trichanthera x palm oil levels in any measurement. Table 4 lists the results concerning the digestibility indices of several nutrients for the total tract of pigs. Overall, digestibility indices were relatively high, including those corresponding to cell walls (NDF).

 

Graded levels of either trichanthera foliage meal up to 20% or crude palm oil up to 10% in the diet respectively had no significant (P>0.05) influence on DM, organic matter, NDF, ether extract and N respectively.

No significant (P<0.05) interaction between the factors trichanthera x palm oil was observed for digestibility of energy, and no dietary influence was observed for these coefficients (Table 5). As to be expected, with increased proportions of crude palm oil in the diet, a noticeable augmentation in the energy density of the diets was found. On the other hand, it was observed that energy digestibility appeared to be depressed in diets containing increasing levels of trichanthera foliage meal in the diet. However, this effect was not significant (P>0.05). 

Nutrient digestibility indices for trichanthera foliage as determined by difference (Crampton and Harris 1969) are set up in Table 6. Taking into account that there was no significant interaction between the two main effects examined in any nutrient digestibility value, a one-way classification was used to detect significant differences among the six treatments containing trichanthera foliage meal. No significant differences (P>0.05) were found in any case, supporting the assumption that there were no additive effects  amongst the ingredients of the diets used in the current experiment.

 

Overall, total tract digestibility indices found for different nutrients contained in the trichanthera foliage meal were consistently high, except for ether extract digestibility, although a high variability in several criteria existed. In the particular case of ether extract digestibility, negative values were encountered for all treatments where trichanthera foliage meal accounted for 10% of the diet. This same index was on average 30.7% for diets containing 20% of trichanthera foliage meal. It is possible that the low crude fat content of trichanthera foliage (see Table 1) determined these contradictory results.  

Ly et al (2001) found that total tract digestibility indices of trichanthera leaves meal as found by difference, were 66.2 and 81.1% for organic matter and N respectively. These data from a Cambodian experiment are in accordance with those of the present study for N and organic matter, in spite of differences in types of animals and trichanthera foliage characteristics, among others. 

 

Energy digestibility of the crude palm oil as estimated by difference was rather low, although highly variable, 56.6 ± 15.1%, and this value could be explained by the high content of saturated fatty acids in the palm oil, which are not well digested as compared to polyunsaturated fatty acids. In this connection, Jørgensen and Fernández (2000) reported values for palmitic acid in palm oil as high as 39.4% HCl-fat.

Conclusions

 

It is suggested that trichanthera foliage meal can be introduced up to 20% in diets for growing pigs with no deleterious influence on total tract digestibility indices. On the other hand, the use of crude palm oil up to 10% in diets containing trichanthera foliage meal could contribute to increase the energy density of the diets. This effect must be reflected in traits of economic interest to be obtained in performance trials conducted with growing-finishing pigs or even in reproductive trials using breeding sows.

 

Acknowledgments

 

This publication is an output from a collaborative research work conducted by the Faculty of Agronomy of the Central University of Venezuela at Maracay and the Swine Research Institute at Havana. Thanks are given to all the staff members of the Swine Unit at the Faculty, and to the librarians of the Swine Research Institute for their assistance.

References 

AOAC 1990 Official Methods of Analysis. Association of Official Analytical Chemists. 15^th edition (K Helrick, editor) Arlington pp 1230

 

Crampton E W and Harris L E 1969 Applied Animal Nutrition. The use of feedstuffs in the formulation of livestock rations (W H Freeman, editor). San Francisco pp 753

 

De Basilio V 1989 Efecto de los aceites crudos y semirefinados de aceite de palma, palmiste, maíz y grasa de cerdo sobre el comportamiento productivo, composición de la canal y lípidos sanguíneos en pollos de engorde. MSc Thesis. Central University of Venezuela. Maracay

 

González C 1994 Utilización de la batata (Ipomoea batatas L.) en la alimentación de cerdos en confinamiento y pastoreo. PhD Thesis. Central University of Venezuela. Maracay pp 233

 

González C 2000 La batata una alternativa tropical para la alimentación de cerdos en Venezuela. Trabajo de Ascenso. Facultad de Agronomía. Universidad Central de Venezuela. Maracay pp 47

 

Gonzalvo S, Nieves D, Ly J, Macías M, Carón M and Martínez V 2001 Algunos aspectos del valor nutritivo de alimentos venezolanos destinados a animales monogástricos. Livestock Reearch for Rural Development 13(2): http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd13/2/gonz132.htm

 

Jørgensen H and Fernández J A 2000 Chemical composition and energy value of different fat sources for growing pigs. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica. Section A. Animal Science. 50:129-136

 

Ly J, Chhay Ty, Chiev Phiny and Preston T R 2001 Some aspects of the nutritive value of leaf meals of Trichanthera gigantea and Morus alba for Mong Cai pigs. Livestock Research for Rural Development 13(3): http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd13/3/ly133.htm

 

Nguyen T H N and Nguyen V H 1999 Supplementing rice by products with foliage of Trichanthera gigantea in diets of growing and lactating pigs and fattening ducks. Livestock Research for Rural Development 11(3) http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd11/3/nhan113.htm

 

NRC 1998  Nutrient Requirements of Swine. National Academy of Science. 9^th edition. National Academy Press. Washington D C, pp 198

 

Pekas J C 1968 Versatile swine laboratory apparatus for physiologic and metabolic studies. Journal of Animal Science 27:1303-1306

 

Rosales M 1997 Avances en la investigación en el valor nutricional del nacedero (Trichanthera gigantea, Humboldt et Bonpland Nees). In: Arboles y arbustos forrajeros utilizados en la alimentación animal como fuente proteica. CIPAV. Cali p 127-144

 

Sarría P 1994 Efecto del nacedero (Trichanthera gigantea) como reemplazo parcial de la soya en cerdas en gestación y lactancia recibiendo una dieta básica de jugo de caña. Livestock Research for Rural Development 6(1):62-73   http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd6/1/sarria1.htm

 

Sarría P, Villavicencio E and Orejuela L E 1991 Utilización de follaje de nacedero (Trichanthera gigantea) en la alimentación de cerdos de engorde. Livestock Research for Rural Development 3(2):51-58   http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd3/2/cipav1.htm

 

SAS 1992 SAS/Laboratory software user’s guide: Statistics. SAS Incompany, Cary pp 291

 

Savón L 1999 Producción y utilización de recursos foliares en la alimentación porcina. In: Producción de cerdos. V Encuentro sobre Nutrición y Producción de Animales Monogástricos. Maracay p 38-53

 

Steel R G D and Torrie J A 1980 Principles and Procedures of Statistics: a Biometrical Approach. McGraw-Hill Book Company (second edition) Toronto pp 663

 

Van Soest P J, Robertson J B and Lewis B A 1991 Methods for dietary fiber, neutral detergent fiber and non starch polysaccharides in relation to animal nutrition. Journal of Dairy Science 74:3583-3593

 

 Received 13 September 2002; Accepted 30 July 2003

 

Go to top