Department of Animal Nutrition, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai-600 007, Tamil Nadu, India
*Corresponding author: Associate Professor and Head, Department of Animal Nutrition, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Orathanadu, Thanjavur-614625, Tami Nadu, (Email: mram72@rediffmail.com)
Online published on 11 November, 2014.
An experiment was conducted to estimate the nutrient composition and methane production potential of tree leaves. The highest OM content was recorded in Anacardium occidentale leaves (96.87%) and lowest value was recorded in Morus alba (86.03%) leaves. EE content of tree leaves ranged from 0.54 to 8.74%. NDF content was the highest in Acacia leucophloea leaves (65.03%) and lowest in Moringa oleifera leaves (19.48%). Lowest in vitro true digestibility was observed in A. leucophloea leaves (41.59%) and highest value was observed in Millingtonia hortensis leaves (75.59%). M. alba leaves had lowest methane production potential at half life (t½) (0.21 ml/100 mg truly digested substrate) and highest methane production potential at half life (t½) was recorded in A. leucophloea leaves (1.98 ml/100 mg truly digested substrate). Sesbania grandiflora leaves had highest (P<0.05) methane production potential at 24 h (2.72 ml/100 mg truly digested substrate) compared to all other tree leaves. Methane production potential at half life (t½) of different tree leaves was negatively correlated with OM content and positively correlated with EE and NDF contents.
Nutrient composition, In vitro true digestibility, Methane production potential, Tree leaves
