Study of associative effects of date palm leaves mixed with <i>Aristida pungens</i> and <i>Astragalus gombiformis</i> on the aptitudes of ruminal microbiota in small ruminants

Abstract

The objectives of this trial were to evaluate interactions between microbial degradation of three substrates: date palm leaves as tannin-rich substrate, Astragalus gombiformis (as nitrogen source) and Aristida pungens (as carbon source). The model included the principal effects of single substrate and mixtures of multiple interactions. The forages were fermented alone or mixed with date palm leaves in various combinations (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%), in buffered rumen fluid using in vitro gas techniques. Gas production (mmol/g of dry matter) at 3, 6, 9, 24, 48 and 72 h of incubation was measured from all feed combinations. Treatments were carried out in triplicate and data were submitted to analysis of variance using a mixed procedure with repetition considered as the random effect. The interactions between feeds were evaluated on the basis of differences between single and mixed substrates on the different variables measured. The results showed that the included palm leaves reduced gas production when associated with A. pungens (p<0.0001), whereas this effect was less significant with A. gombiformis. This effect was more pronounced at earlier times of incubations. The in vitro organic matter digestibility decreased linearly with the increasing inclusion of date palm leaves in the mixtures. It is concluded that date palm leaves may be a suitable feed supplement for small ruminants browsing A. pungens and A. gombiformis in arid regions. The present results also showed that the inclusion level should be lower than 20% and for a short period in order to minimise tannins effect. The description of the fermentation profile of in vitro gas production showed that Sandoval model was poor and not appropriate for the characteristic varieties of arid and semi-arid areas in Algeria and the multiple regression models revealed a good linear regression for both mixtures.

Keywords: Date palm leaves, forage, semi-arid zone, associative effects, rumen, in vitro fermentation