In-Vitro Gas Production and Digestibility of Indian Marsh Fleabane (Pluchea Indica L.) and Portia Tree  Leaves (Thespesia Populnea)

The use of plant leaves as an alternative roughage is an effective feeding strategy under a limited supply or lack of feed resources for small ruminants. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the potential of Indian Marsh Fleabane (Pluchea indica L.) Leaf (IMFL) and Portia Tree (Thespesia populnea) Leaf (PTL) as roughage sources. This experiment was carried out to determine the effects of different ratios of IMFL or PTL to concentrate on degradability and in-vitro gas production. A completely randomized design with 5 replicates per treatment was used to determine the effect of different ratios of IMFL or PTL to concentrate (12.66% CP) as Dry Matter (DM) basis. The tested treatments of IMFL were 100:0 (T1), 60:40 (T2) and 50:50 (T3) and of PTL were 100:0 (T4), 60:40 (T5) and 50:50 (T6). The results showed that gas production from soluble fractions, gas production from insoluble fractions, the potential extent of gas production and the gas production rate among all treatments were not significantly different. In-vitro gas production at 4, 8, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. and metabolized energy in the T1 group was significantly higher (P<0.05) than in other groups. However, NH3-N and In-Vitro True Digestibility (IVTD) were not significant among treatments. Compared to other treatments, In-vitro Organic Matter Digestibility (IVOMD) was significantly the lowest in the T4 group (P<0.05). The obtained results indicated that the optimal ratios of IMFL or PTL to concentrate were 60:40 and 50:50 on a DM basis. Therefore, we concluded that IMFL and PTL had the potential to be used as alternative roughage sources for ruminants without negative impact on gas production, In-vitro digestibility and NH3-N assessment.