Chemical composition and gas production characteristics of some camel feeds in Butana area of Sudan

Thirty- six samples of 12 feed stuffs were evaluated for nutritive value by in vitro gas production technique using rumen fluid collected from camel and cattle. The results found indicated that the highest rate of gas production during 3 - 96h readings was signifcantly (p<0.05) recorded with feed stuffs that incubated with buffered rumen fluid from camels. In the soluble fractions (a-values) of Ipomoea cordofana, Sonchus oleraceus, Clitoria ternata and Plepharis edulis had signifcantly (p<0.05) more a-values when incubated with buffered rumen fluid from camel compared to that of cattle, while there was no signifcant differences among the rest plant species. Six out of 12 studied plants, Convolulus fatmensis, Plepharis edulis, Leucaena glauca, peanut cake, sesame cake and baggasse reached signifcantly (p<0.05) high (b-values) when incubated with buffered rumen fluid from camel compared to that of cattle, whereas there was no signifcant variation among the rest plant species except Acacia seyal which had signifcantly (p<0.05) higher values (a and a+b) when incubated with buffered rumen fluid from cattle. The (a+b) values of Convolulus fatmensis, Sonchus oleraceus, Clitoria ternata, Plepharis edulis, groundnut cake and baggasse were found signifcantly (p<0.05) higher when incubated with buffered rumen fluid from camel compared to that of cattle. The c-values were only found higher (p<0.05) in Clitoria ternata and Plepharis edulis when incubated with buffered rumen fluid from cattle while, Convolulus fatmensis, Ipomoea cordofana, Sonchus oleraceus, Acacia seyal, sorghum grain and sesame cake recorded highest C-values (p<0.05) on camel fluid. No signifcant variation between the other plant species was detected. It was observed that there are considerable differences between cattle and camel in terms of a, b, a+b, and c values. The predicted metabolisable energy (ME) profle of camel are varied widely (4.12 - 9.59 MJ/KG DM) when compared to that of cattle, which ranged between (3 - 7.29 MJ/KG DM). The organic matter digestibility (OMD %) of studied individual feed stuffs, which incubated with buffered rumen fluid from cattle ranged between (24.07 - 63.54%) and that from camel ranged between (31.33 - 71.07%). OMD% of camel was signifcantly (p<0.05) higher in sesame cake, while, there are no signifcant differences between the rest studied plant species except in both Acacia seyal and baggasse which signifcantly (p<0.05) had lower values of OMD% in both cattle and camel trials. It is noticeable that, there are considerable variations in metabolisable energy contents and organic matter digestibilities values of camel compared to that of cattle.