In vitro Evaluation of Plant Derived Dietary Fibers as Prebiotic for Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca)

An in vitro experiment was conducted to determine the prebiotics potential of plant derived fibres (Jerusalem artichoke (JA) and chicory (CH)) and animal derived substrates (ADS) (chicken cartilage (CC) and goat tendon (GT)) as compared to positive control of fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS). Eleven Indian leopards fed meat only diets were used as donor animals. Pooled faecal samples were diluted 1: 20 (w/v), 30 ml of buffered faecal suspension and 250 mg substrate were placed into 100 ml fermentation glass syringe and incubated for 24 h. Each substrate was incubated in quadruplicate, repeated three times at weekly interval. Cumulative gas production (CGP) was measured at 0, 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 h. The CGP, and concentrations of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and lactate were higher (P<0.01), with simultaneous decrease (P<0.01) in concentration of ammonia, branched chain fatty acids and pH when plant derived substrtaes (PDS) were incubated as compared to ADS. It is evident that the PDS are better fermentation substrate than ADS. Beneficial effects of using PDS as substrates included decreased pH and ammonia level, and increased concentration of butyrate and lactate. Between the PDS, JA showed the best response in terms of reduction of pH, ammonia and improvement in the concentration of butyrate and lactate. It was concluded that JA has the potential to be used as prebiotic in the diet of captive Indian leopard fed meat only diets.