Cinética da produção de gases de plantas nativas de caatinga com potencial forrageiro

Abstract

The caatinga has a wide variety of plants that are used to feed animals, despite their irregular distribution. However, there are several plants that have good nutritional value, a fact that contributes to the good performance of animals. This study aimed to evaluate the gas production kinetics of forage plants in the Caatinga biome: Malva Rasteira (Herissantia crispa), Quince (Croton sonderianus), Aroeira (Myracrodruon urundeuva), Bamborral (Hyptis umbrosa) and Buffalo grass (Cenchrus ciliares) as cultivated forage plant used in animal feed. The experiment was carried out at the Agricultural Sciences Laboratory of the Federal Institute of Piauí, Campus Paulistana-PI. Initially, 500 mg of dry samples were weighed and incubated in flasks with a capacity of 100mL, containing the rumen fluid, buffer solution and kept at a temperature of 39º C in a water bath. The volume of gases produced by fermentation and accumulated in the flasks was measured with the aid of a graduated syringe at times 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34, 40, 48 , 60 and 72 hours after incubation. The in vitro degradation kinetic parameters were estimated from the cumulative production of gases using the NLMIXED procedure from SAS (Statistical Analyzes System, Cary, USA). Buffel grass presented higher gas production than the other plants (77.64 mL/g DM incubated), followed by Malva and Aroeira plants (58.16 and 54.05 mL/g DM incubated, respectively), which were statistically similar . Among the native species of the Caatinga biome, due to the high rate of accumulated gases, Malva and Aroeira are more suitable for animal consumption, demonstrating nutritional superiority and contributing to greater weight gain for animals.