The effect of underfeeding and ref eeding on digestion was studied in Bos taurus and Bos indicus cows. Eight nonlactating cows, four B. taurus and four B. indicus (live weight 156 kg and 207 kg respectively) were first given a forage-based diet at a level above energy maintenance requirements for 4 weeks (3·65 and 4·66 kg dry matter (DM) per day respectively for B. taurus and B. indicus). They were then restricted at a low level of intake for 2 months (1·83 and 2·33 kg DM per day respectively for B. taurus and B. indicus) and finally refed at the first level for 2 months. Digestion measurements were made before the underfeeding period, at 3 and 8 weeks of underfeeding and at 3 and 8 weeks ofref eeding. Organic matter apparent digestibility decreased with underfeeding and increased with refeeding (0·637, 0·591, 0·652, 0·692 and 0·669 in B. taurus and 0·674, 0·560, 0·580, 0·698 and 0·692 in B. indicus, respectively 1 week before, 3 and 8 weeks after underfeeding, and 3 and 8 weeks after refeeding). This lower apparent digestibility at low level of intake was not expected either by ruminal particle retention time, which increased when intake decreased, or by measurements ofmicrobial activity: DM degradability measured in situ and ruminal particle size did not vary with level of intake. An effect of the length of underfeeding and refeeding was seen: the apparent digestibility tended to increase after several weeks of undernutrition and was higher after refeeding than before underfeeding. No difference was observed between the two genotypes.

Material and methodsPods yield; Pods falling from eight trees of E. cyclocarpum available at two commercial livestock farms were manually collected and weighed weekly until pod production stopped to obtain productivity and availability. In vivo dry matter digestibility; Five male Pelibuey sheep of 32 kg live weight housed in metabolic crates were fed increasing levels of E. cyclocarpum ground pods in the ration in a 5 3 5 Latin Square design. Levels of incorporation of E. cyclocarpum pods were 0 (control; concentrate based ration), 20, 30, 40 and 50% of ration dry matter. The rest of the ration was composed of sorghum grain, soybean meal, cane molasses and minerals. Animal performance; In a commercial sheep farm forty male Pelibuey sheep of 20.6 kg live weight were allocated randomly to one of two groups of 20 sheep each and fed either a 1) commercial concentrate ration (pelleted; 17% CP), or 2) ration containing 50% dry matter as ground pods of E. cyclocarpum mixed with ground corn, soybean meal, cane molasses and minerals. Sheep were fed ad libitum for 42 days and weight gain was recorded every 14 days after 18 h fast. ResultsEnterolobium.cyclocarpum pods had 16% crude protein, 35% neutral detergent fibre and 1.5% ether extract. Average pod production from E. cyclocarpum trees was 86 kg per production cycle. The production of pods from E. cyclocarpum was markedly seasonal, mostly involving the months of April-May. In vitro dry matter digestibility (67%) of E. cyclocarpum pods matched reasonably well with the in vivo dry matter digestibility (71%) of rations fed to sheep containing 40-50% of the DM as ground pods of E. cyclocarpum. No significant differences (P . 0.05) were found for dry matter intake and dry matter digestibility when ground pods of E. cyclocarpum were increased in the ration of hair sheep from 0 to 50% of ration dry matter. No significant differences were found for daily DM intake (776 vs ) and feed conversion efficiency (4.3 vs 4.6 intake gain 21 ) for the concentrate (pelleted) and the E. cyclocarpum (50% of DM) ration fed to Pelibuey sheep in a commercial farm. Weight gain of hair sheep was comparable to that found by Moscoso et al., (1995) in hair sheep (223 g d 21 ) fed 36% of the ration DM as ground pods of E. cyclocarpum. E. cyclocarpum pods have good chemical composition (15-16% CP, 30-35% NDF). Rumen degradability (a 1 b) of DM of E. cyclocarpum pods was high (86%). DM intake (1.2-1.4 kg sheep 21 d 21 ) and DM digestibility (71%) of rations containing E. cyclocarpum pods (50% of DM) are relatively high for hair sheep. Weight gain (239 g/day) and feed conversion efficiency (4.6:1) of rations containing high levels (50% of DM) of pods are reasonable good in hair sheep. Secondary metabolites (saponins) in E. cyclocarpum may reduce protozoa numbers in the rumen and exert a beneficial effect on efficiency of microbial protein synthesis in the rumen (Koenig et al., 2007). ConclusionsThe availability of E. cyclocarpum pods during the dry season (April-May), and their good nutritional value...

The chemical composition, digestibility, and voluntary feed intake by sheep of mango by-products were studied in an experiment with five dietary treatments consisting of mango peels and seed kernels, offered individually or together with urea block and a control. The mango residues were offered with rice straw and the control diet was straw only. Five groups of five male sheep of Djallonké type, 12-18 months old and weighing on average 18.6 kg were allocated randomly to the diets to assess the voluntary feed intake. Apparent digestibility of the same diets was measured using four sheep per diet. The mango residues were low in crude protein, 67 and 70 g/kg dry matter for the peels and the seed kernels, respectively. The content of neutral detergent fiber varied from 306 to 388 g/kg dry matter (DM) for the kernel and the peels, respectively. The kernel had relatively high level of fat (105 g/kg DM) and tannins (29 and 40 g/kg DM of hydrolysable and total tannins, respectively). The highest intake was observed with the diet containing both residues and urea block (741 g/day). The intake of kernels was lower in all diets when offered with the peels than when offered with rice straw alone. Apparent digestibility of the diets containing mango residues was 0.60-0.65. The peels and kernels had high digestibility coefficients (0.74 and 0.70, respectively). Based on the results above, it can be concluded that it would be interesting to test the residues in a growth experiment.

Two tons of and chopped millet and sorghum straws have been treated with an urea solution at 5% (100 kg of straw, sprinkled with 50 lt. of solution). Treated straws were used as basic diet (900 g day) associated to 100 g of cotton cake for 24 growing Djallonke rams in comparison to non treated straws. Four groups of animals were fed for 98 days with: urea treated sorghum (UTSS), not treated sorghum straw (NTSS), treated millet (UTMS), non treated millet straw (NTMS). Treated straws presented an increase of NDF of about 9%, of total nitrogen from 2 to 3 times while digestibility of dry matter increased respectively by 8,8% and 23,0% respectively in treated sorghum and millet. Also dry matter intake increased by 4,5% and 15,5% for treated sorghum and millet respectively compared to non treated. Mean weekly weight gain were significantly higher (P<0.05) for UTSS e UTMS compared to NTSS e NTMS. While the weekly weight gain, did not differed between UTSS vs. UTMS and NTSS vs. NTMS. At the end of the trial the UTSS and UTMS group presented a weight gain of about 40% and 38.7%, of their initial weight; while the gain for both NTSS and NTMS was respectively of 31.1% and 29.5%

Pour comparer leurs degrés respectifs de sensibilité à l'égard de la trypanosomose, 24 moutons et chèvres de race naine Djallonké, et 16 moutons et chèvres Peul du Sahel, ont été inoculés avec des souches de Trypanosoma vivax et de Trypanosoma congolense. Un animal de chaque race a servi de témoin. Une anémie est observée chez tous les animaux inoculés. Pour l'infection à T. vivax, 1 chèvre Djallonké sur 6, 3 chèvres sur 4 et 2 moutons sur 4 de race Peul du Sahel sont morts en 16 semaines d'expérimentation. Une seule mortalité sur 4 est enregistrée dans le lot des moutons Peul du Sahel, pour l'infection à T. congolense. Les chutes de poids et de concentration leucocytaire observées ne diffèrent pas significativement entre Djallonké et Peul du Sahel durant 8 semaines. Cette étude montre une bonne résistance des moutons et chèvres Djallonké à l'infection à T. vivax. Par contre, il n'y a pas de différence significative entre les deux races de moutons et de chèvres infectés à T.congolense.