In vitro nutritional quality and antioxidant activity of three weed species as feed additives for sheep in the Central Highlands of Mexico

• Published in: Tropical animal health and production Vol. 53; no. 3; p. 394
• Main Authors: Diaz-Medina, Lucero Karen, Colín-Navarro, Vianey, Arriaga-Jordán, Carlos M., Brunett-Pérez, Luis, Vázquez-de-Aldana, Beatriz R., Estrada-Flores, Julieta Gertrudis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-07-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Antioxidants; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Chemical composition; Diet; Digestibility; Dry matter; Feed additives; Fermentation; Gas production; Grasslands; High performance liquid chromatography; Inductively coupled plasma; Kinetics; Life Sciences; Liquid chromatography; Livestock; Metabolites; Nutritive value; Oil and gas production; Organic matter; Phenolic compounds; Phenols; Regular Articles; Rumen; Rural areas; Rural communities; Secondary metabolites; Sheep; Tannins; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; Weeds; Zoology; Mexico; Antioxidants; Metabolites; Phenolic compounds; Weeds; In vitro gas production
• ISSN: 0049-4747; 1573-7438
• DOI: 10.1007/s11250-021-02819-8

Sheep production is traditional for rural communities in Mexico, based on natural grasslands and semi-stabled feeding. Quality forages are necessary to improve productivity in these systems. Weeds are an alternative to feed ruminants and to manage crops. Also, many plants have secondary metabolites beneficial for livestock. The objective was to assess the nutritive value in vitro and the antioxidant activity of three weeds (
Tithonia tubiformis
,
Cosmos bipinnatus
, and
Tagetes lucida
) and four treatments (T0 = control diet, T1 = diet + 5%
T. tubiformis
, T2 = diet + 5%
C. bipinnatus
, and T3 = diet + 5%
T. lucida
). Nutritive value was determined from chemical composition by standard methods and mineral contents by inductively coupled plasma analyses. Secondary compounds, total phenols (TP), total tannins (TT), condensed tannins (CT), and phenolic compounds, were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography, and total antioxidant activity was determined by measuring the oxygen radical absorbance capacity. Rumen fermentation kinetics and in vitro digestibility of dry matter (IVDMD), organic matter (IVOMD), and neutral detergent fibre (IVNDFD) were determined per species and treatment by in vitro gas production.
T. tubiformis
had the highest CP and TP contents (
P
 < 0.05), and
C. bipinnatus
had the highest fibre and CT contents (
P
 < 0.05). Inclusion of
T. lucida
in the diet resulted in an 18% increase in TP content and a 30% increase in antioxidant activity in comparison to the control diet. No significant differences (
P
 > 0.05) were found in rumen kinetics parameters, IVDMD, IVOMD, IVNDFD, or metabolizable energy, indicating that the tested weeds can be used as additives to increase antioxidant activity in sheep diets without negative effects.