Nutritive value of Morinda lucida and its fermentation parameters in West African dwarf (WAD) sheep when fed as supplement to grass hay

The nutritive value of Morinda lucida leaves (Indian Morus) was evaluated using twelve 24-month-old West African dwarf (WAD) sheep (25.0 kg body weight, BW) fed Agrostis stolonifers hay. Six of the sheep were fistulated ruminally and used for rumen pH, ammonia and volatile fatty acid (VFA) determination in the rumen fluid. Dried leaves of M. lucida were offered at two levels [25 and 50% of dry matter intake (DMI), diets 2 and 3, respectively] as supplement to basal hay diet. The basal hay diet without supplement was the control diet designated diet 1. The crude protein (CP) contents of diets 1, 2 and 3 were 102, 120 and 138 g/kg, respectively, and their digestible energy (DE) intake amounted to 5.63, 5.09 and 4.94 MJ/d, respectively. In the fermentation profile trial, the pH of diet 3 was lower (P < 0.05) than the controls and diet 2. The ruminal pH dropped (P < 0.05) during feeding, reaching its lowest value 1 h after feeding stopped, and then began to increase to pre-feeding values after 5 h. The ruminal ammonia concentration of sheep fed diet 2 and the controls was higher (P < 0.05) than that of diet 3. Diet 3 showed a higher (P < 0.05) volatile fatty acid concentration compared to the controls and diet 2. There was a higher (P < 0.05) concentration of acetate and propionate in diet 3 compared to the controls and diet 2. Nitrogen intake in the supplemented groups was higher (P < 0.05) compared to the controls. However, retained N was higher (P < 0.05) in diet 3 than in diet 2. There were differences (P < 0.05) in organic matter (OM), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and ether extract (EE) digestibility with level of supplementation. A decrease (P < 0.05) of 5.6% in OM digestibility and 7.7% in ADF digestibility was observed in diet 2 compared to the controls, respectively. The energy partitioning trial showed a depression (P < 0.05) of methane energy with supplementation level. Diet 2 had a higher (P < 0.05) faecal energy loss than the controls but not with diet 3. There were no differences in retained energy and heat loss between treatments. However, the lowest heat loss observed in diet 3 could be responsible for the marginal increase in retained energy observed in this group. This study showed that livestock farmers could offer 50% of dried M. lucida leaves as supplement to A. stolonifers hay.