Assessment of supplementary feeding of leaf meals of trichanthera gigantea on growth performance in barbados blackbelly sheep

An abstract of a research paper presented to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, as part of the course DVT 5436 - Research Project, as a partial requirement. There is presently little evidence about the advantages of rising the proportion of Trichanthera gigantea leaves in the grass-based diets of lambs raised in Malaysia's tropical climate. T. gigantea have the potential to substitute other fodder tree leaves in terms of growth performance. Six Barbados Blackbelly ewe lambs aged 3-4 months were divided into 2 different groups (n = 3 ewe lambs in each group). For Group 1, animals were provided only chopped grass forage, Pennisetum purpureum only. For group 2, the feed of the animals consisted of chopped Pennisetum purpureum (1000 g for each animal) and chopped dried T. gigantea leaf (200 g for each animal) daily in the following ratios (T. gigantea leaves: chopped napier grasses, 17:83). Over the course of eleven days, daily measurements of total body mass were taken. Before starting the feeding process, the initial weight of the sheep was recorded. For observation purposes, the weight of the sheep (kg), and the amount of feed given (kg) were taken or recorded every day to see the progression. After 21 days, the final weight of the sheep was recorded to evaluate the weight. Overall, there was no significant difference in the intakes of T. gigantea leaves (P>0.05). While level of T. gigantea leaves fed to lambs did not generally affect total intakes of grass. Animal performance on this feed cannot be assumed to be similar until longer-term feeding studies have been performed, as level of leaf in the diet just increased.
Keywords: Trichanthera gigantea, Barbados Blackbelly sheep.