Value Addition of Feed and Fodder For Dairy Cattle

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diu n e p om
Trainers' Training Programme (Skill Development)
Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

June 27- July 6, 2013
Editors N. M. Soren S. B.N. Rao Soumitra Jash C. S. Prasad

National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Adugodi, Bangalore 560 030 Tel: 91-080-25711304, 25711164, 25702539. Fax : 91-080-25711420 Website: http://www.nianp.res.in
National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology Bangalore - 560 030
Compendium
Trainers' Training Programme (Skill Development)

June 27- July 6, 2013
Course Director Dr C. S. Prasad Director, NIANP
Course Co-Director S. B. N. Rao N. M. Soren
Edited and Compiled by N. M. Soren S. B.N. Rao Soumitra Jash C. S. Prasad
National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology Adugodi, Bangalore - 560 030 Tel: +91-80-25711304 / 25711164 / 25702546. Fax: +91-80-25711420 URL: www.nianp.res.in and Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, New Delhi
Published by Dr C S Prasad Director, NIANP
Designed & Format: Shankar T (ARIS Cell)
All Rights Reserved. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any from or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher.
Disclaimer
No responsibility is assumed by the Course Director and Course Co-ordinators for the statement made by the authors in this compendium.
Core faculty A. K. Samanta A. P. Kolte A. Thulasi A.V. Elangovan D. Rajendran D. T. Pal J. P. Ravindra K. Giridhar K. S. Prasad M. Bagath M. Chandrasekharaiah M. Sridhar N. K. S. Gowda N. M. Soren P. K. Malik P. Khandekar R. Bhatta S. Anandan S. B. N. Rao S. Jash S. Senani U. B. Angadi U. Suganthi V. Sejian
Guest Faculty K.T. Sampath U. Krishnamoorthy
Preface
Productivity and profitability in the livestock sector to a large extent is determined by quantity and quality of feed as this is the single largest recurring expenditure accounting for 70 - 75% of the cost of production of the dairy enterprise. Rapidly growing livestock sector necessitates a proportional increase in the availability of feed resources to fulfill its demand which seems to be uncertain under the deterioration of land and water resources and the growing demand for food and commercial crops. The diversity in terms of the animals, management, feed availability and feeding systems poses a challenge for the scientists, development agencies, service providers and the policy makers to cater to the growing demand and provide solutions for ensuring the growth and sustainability of the dairy sector. Under this scenario efficient utilization of available feed resources, identification of newer feeds and value addition of agro-industrial by-products will be key in successful and profitable dairy enterprise. This Training Course "Value addition of feed and fodder for dairy cattle" second in the series being organized by the NIANP, is the fruitful outcome of the efforts initiated by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India as a part of the Human Resource Development aimed at improving the skills of trainers in the dairy / feed sector to update them with new and latest concepts in the area. The course contents covering major aspects of feed and fodder resources, scope for their value addition for round the year availability, area specific mineral mixture, strategic nutrient supplementation, feed additives, environment-friendly livestock production, quality and safety of feeds shall be very useful to the central and state animal husbandry officers, providing an insight into the latest technologies and could be a practical guide for adoption at field level. I am sure that this training will go a long way in enhancing knowledge and key skills of officials from the state animal husbandry departments and the milk federation in improving their understanding of the newer concepts in feed resource management and would help them to further train their other officers to maintain the chain of knowledge dissemination. Further, this would also provide a platform for the officials from the field and the researchers in understanding the problems in the field and use the mutual strengths in providing solutions to emerging problems and contribute to the overall development of rural farming communities. I congratulate the course Co-Directors and officers involved in organizing this important training program and also convey my sincere thanks to the Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, GoI who have taken this noble initiative to train the trainers in the larger interest of livestock farmers.
Date: 24-06- 2013 Place: Bangalore
(C. S. Prasad) COURSE DIRECTOR
Contents
Sl.No.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Title
Page No.
1 7 14 18
Overview of Feed Resources Availability - Scope for Value Addition S. Anandan, U.B. Angadi and S. Jash Alternate Feeds for Livestock Feeding K. S. Prasad and S.B.N. Rao Round the Year Fodder Production and its Conservation for Intensive Dairy Production K. Giridhar and S. Jash Value Addition to Fodder for Sustainable Ruminant Production U. Krishnamoorthy Rumen Bypass Nutrient Technology and its Relevance for Sustainable Milk Production in High Yielding Dairy Animals M. Chandrasekharaiah, N.M. Soren, S.B.N. Rao and C. S. Prasad Minerals in Feeding of Dairy Animals and Concept of Area Specific Mineral Mixture N.K.S. Gowda, D.T. Pal and C. S. Prasad Cultivation and Usage of Azolla as Supplemental Feed for Dairy Cattle K. Giridhar and D. Rajendran Urea-Ammoniation of Crop Residues for Improving Nutritive Value of Feed P. K. Malik, N. M. Soren, A. Thualsi, D. Rajendran, M. Bagath, S. Jash and L. Jose Dairy Farmers' Multi-nutrient Wand: Urea Molasses Block licks S Jash, S. Anandan, S.B.N. Rao, A. Thulasi, M. Bagath, D. Rajendran, P.K. Malik and N.M. Soren Feeding of Total Mixed Ration and Complete Feed Block for High Yielding Dairy Animals S. Senani, A.K. Samanta and A. P. Kolte Improving Poor Quality Roughages through Solid State Fermentation (SSF) Technology M. Sridhar, A. Dhali and R. Bhatta Manipulation of Rumen Environment for Efficient Utilization of Ligno-cellulosic Biomass A. Thulasi, L. Jose, P. K. Malik, M. Bagath, D. Rajendran, N. M. Soren, V. Prasad and K.P. Prabha The Importance of Feeding Exogenous Enzymes in Dairy Cattle D.T. Pal, N.K.S. Gowda, N.C. Vallesha and C.S. Prasad Prebiotics for Improving Gut Health and Production in Dairy Animals A.K. Samanta, A.P. Kolte, S. Senani and A. Dhali Probiotics for Enhancing Performance in Dairy Cattle N. M. Soren, P.K. Malik, M. Chandrashekaraiah, S.B.N. Rao, A. Thulasi and S. Jash Quality Control and Safety of Livestock Feeds for Dairy Cattle S.B. N. Rao, K.S. Prasad, N.M. Soren, M. Chandrasekharaiah and S. Jash Rapid Methods of Detection of Mycotoxins in Livestock Feeds U. Suganthi, M. Sridhar and A. Mech Nutrition Reproduction Interaction for Sustainable Dairy Production J. P. Ravindra Innovative Feeding Management to Reduce Enteric Methane Emission from Ruminants R. Bhatta and C.S. Prasad Management and Amelioration of Stress in High Producing Dairy Cattle V. Sejian, A. Mech, A. Mishra, A. Dhali, A.P. Kolte and J.P. Ravindra Computerization of Dairy Farm U.B. Angadi and S. Anandan Using Internet for Technical Information: Opportunities and Precautions A.P. Kolte, A. Dhali, A.K. Samanta and S. Senani Role of Improved Feeding Practices in Augmenting Livelihood Security of Livestock Farmers A.V. Elangovan, K. Giridhar, Sharagouda and P. Khandekar Role of Extension Services in Sustainable Dairy Production Letha Devi and P. Khandekar
21 26 32 35 42 49 55 62 69 74 78 86 94 98 102 109 115 119 125 129
6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.
1
Overview of Feed Resources Availability Scope for Value Addition
S. Anandan, U. B. Angadi and S. Jash National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Introduction
Productivity and profitability in any livestock sector to a large extent is determined by feed resources and the quality of the feeds available as feed is the single largest recurring expenditure accounting for 60 - 75% of the cost of production. Rapidly growing livestock sector necessitates a proportional increase in the availability of feed resources to fulfill its demand. Limited availability of natural resources - land and water and the growing demand for food and commercial crops are some of the major constraints in expanding the feed resources. Under the present circumstances of a limited feed resources on the supply side and the greater demand for livestock products on the demand side, requiring for higher quantity and quality of feed resources, there is a greater need for efficient management of the all the components of the livestock sector that includes breed, feed, management and markets. The present write-up would cover the various aspects of feed management, although it is needless to say that it should go hand in hand with the other components for ensuring a strong livestock sector.
Feed resources availability

India, with only 2.29 % of land area of the world, is maintaining nearly 17.4% of human and 10.7% of livestock population of the world. Growing demand for livestock products by the increasing population and urbanization is one of the major factors responsible for the steady growth of the livestock sector. Sustaining the current growth trends in the livestock sector and fulfilling the demand for feed without compromising on food security and any additional allocation of land and water for feed production would be a major challenge for the livestock sector. Currently, the estimated availability of feed resources at the national level in terms of dry fodder, green fodder and concentrates is around 360, 619 and 54 million tons, respectively and the corresponding deficits are 25, 20 and 32% (Ravi Kiran 2012 -NIANP estimates). In view of the current shortage and the likely chances of further escalating deficits of feed resources there is a need for a concrete action plan for the feed resource management for the livestock sector.
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Resource wise dry fodder represents the largest amount followed by the green fodder, and the concentrates. Dry fodder mostly comprises of crop residues and is obtained as a by-product after harvesting the food grains. Crop residues have low palatability, nutritionally poor and have to be supplemented with green fodder or concentrates to maintain productive animals. Green fodders are the next largest feed resource and are highly palatable, nutritionally rich and can be fed to sustain medium to reasonably good level of production. Concentrates comprise of grain by-products (bran & chunni), oil cakes and grains and are the most desired class of feed resources for sustaining high levels of production. The various approaches for enhancing dry and green fodders are as follows.
Crop residues
Crop residues is one of the major feed resources and the options for enhancing the dry fodder availability is multi dimensional food feed crop improvement wherein the crop residues' quality and quantity can be improved simultaneously without compromising the food grain production. The existing variations in terms of crop residue quantity and quality for the major food crops can be exploited through simple screening and selecting the newer varieties with superior fodder quality. Currently, the criteria for releasing new variety are restricted to grain yield without any consideration for crop residue quality. By including the crop residue characteristics in the release criteria, the quantitative and qualitative contribution of crop residues can be substantially improved without any additional demand for land and water. Additionally, crop residue management that includes modifying the current combined harvesters to minimize fodder losses, banning burning of straws and diverting for non feed uses can substantially improve the dry fodder availability. Further processing technologies like, chaffing, baling, feed blocks, strategic supplementation and ration balancing can ensure optimum uses of available fodder and concentrate supplements.
Green fodder
Green fodders are the second largest feed resource, and a major chunk of them is obtained from cultivated fodders followed by grasses from common property resources like pastures, grass lands, fallows, cultivable waste lands and fodder trees. About 4.5 per cent of the gross cropped areas in the country are allocated to fodder crops, and it has not changed much over the last 25 years. Common grazing lands (permanent pastures and grazing lands, cultivable and uncultivable wastelands, fallows other than current fallows) occupy 16 per cent of the total geographical area. Area under permanent pastures and grazing lands comprises a mere 3.2% of the total area, and has been declining steadily. The forest cover is to the tune of 21.3 % of which more than 85 % are protected. In the states of Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthan, the land use for green fodder production is around 10%, and the livestock productivity in these states is more. Enhancing the area under fodder cultivation for increasing the green fodder availability is unlikely to happen due to the competing demands for land and water from the food and commercial crops. Enhancing the green fodder availability through improving productivity of cultivated fodders through elite germplasm and better agronomic practices is one strong option. Use of the intensive forage production system in achieving maximum sustainable harvest of nutritive herbage per unit area and time by using Multiple cropping, Over lapping Cropping, Parallel cropping, Mixed / Intercropping systems for quality herbage production. Timely availability of fodder seed is a major issue and development of forage seed production chain from nucleus seed, breeder seed to certified seed as existing in cereal and other important crops has to be taken up. NSC/SSCs to be mandated for fodder seed production targets and seed reserves should be developed for fodder crop security.
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Green fodder availability from common property resources can be enhanced substantially by proper management of these resources as presently most of them are degraded and are poorly managed. A sound policy on managing these common property resources, backed by technical inputs like high-yielding nutritive fodder varieties, package of practices and logistics support in terms of timely availability of inputs like seeds, fertilizers and water management can go a long way in improving the productivity and sustainability of the common property resources. The grazing resources should be developed as per the grazing habits and pasture requirements of particular animal species. For the browser like goats, grazing land can be predominated superior shrubs and tree species while for grazing livestock like sheep and cattle, proper balance of superior quality grasses and legumes may be the major component of the pasture. Further in view of the recurring calamities like floods and drought there is a need for establishing fodder banks across the areas prone for such calamities.
Technological options for efficient utilization of feeds in dairy

Increasing number of milch animals coupled with improved productivity over the recent years and the shrinking feed resource base calls for better feed resources management and feeding technologies. The number of animals in milk increased from 72.6 to 74.4 million heads during the period 2007-08 to 2009-10, and this was also accompanied by an increase in the average productivity of crossbred, indigenous and buffalo milch animals (BAHS, 2010). Increasing productivity of animals will require quality feeds and this is already happening in milch animals in urban and peri-urban areas at least as evidenced by increasing use of concentrates, green fodders and compounded cattle feed. With commercialization in addition to qualitative improvement in feeding of milch animals, a number of technologies are being adopted by the dairy industry for enhancing the productivity of milch animals. The present paper presents a brief note on the technologies that are being successfully used and some of the new technologies that have relevance to our diary industry. The population of indigenous, crossbreds and buffaloes in milk are 39, 14 and 47% of the total animals in milk and their corresponding share of milk to the total pool is 21, 24 and 55%, respectively. Thus indigenous animals are substantially high in numbers, and their contribution to the milk pool is not proportional to their numbers and is quite low unlike crossbred and buffaloes. The technological approaches for improving productivity would vary with the milch production potential. Technological interventions like bypass proteins and fats are less relevant to indigenous milch animals, and the rest of listed technologies cut across the categories of the animals.
Bypass nutrients
Although the concept of bypass nutrients- protein and fats started in western countries, were targeted for high producing animals, surprisingly in Indian crossbreds and buffaloes with moderate to low production potential, the concept of bypass proteins and fats was found to have a positive production response (Sampath et al., 1997). This in turn resulted in production of bypass protein feeds by a large number of the feed mills in the co-operative and private sector and the steady increase in the quantity of the bypass feed produced over the years. Of late bypass amino acids, especially lysine and methionine are being used in milch animals, and the production responses have been quite positive. Few of the private firms have started marketing these products and with the increasing productivity and the need for better efficiency it is likely that targeted nutrition technologies that is supplementing the required nutrients precisely will catch up in a large way. Compared to the bypass protein, although use of bypass fats resulted in positive production responses, it is relatively less popular. Most of the bypass fats in India is either imported or manufactured by few private firms and its largescale adoption by dairy co-operative sector is yet to be seen.
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Balanced feeding Ration balancing

Traditionally the dairy sector is largely in the mixed farming systems, and the feeding practice is generally based on the agricultural residues, by products and other locally available resources. This type of feeding is generally inadequate and more often there is imbalanced nutrition leading to inefficient production and wastage of resources. The concept of ration balancing has been tested widely by the National Dairy Development Board in Western India, and the results have been very positive in terms of improved productivity, resource utilization, sustainability, and feed costs. NDDB has developed user friendly computer software, which can be used for advising the farmers, through a village-based trained local resource person, to balance the ration of animals by using the locally available feed resources. (www.nddb.org).There is a need for wider adoption of this approach, which can have a large positive impact on the dairy production and feed resources' utilization.
Compound cattle feed

Traditionally majority of dairy farmers in India feed the home-made concentrate mix (oil cakes, bran and rarely grains).This homemade mix is neither nutritionally balanced nor fed in adequate quantities to get the optimum production. Further the practice of including mineral mixture in the homemade mix is nonexistent and as a result the mineral deficiency is a wide-spread phenomenon in the field. Compound cattle feed, on the other hand, is a scientifically balanced and nutritionally superior to homemade mixes. Although the consumption of concentrates is increasing in the cooperative and private sector, the gap between the present levels and the actual potential for production and consumption of compounded cattle feed is wide and there is a need for proper communication strategy for encouraging the use of compound cattle feed. Costing of the compound feed vis--vis the home-made mix, lack of awareness about the long term advantages of using compound feeds on productivity and health of the animals, quality of compound feed and non-remunerative prices for the milk are some of the major factors that make the farmers to continue with the practice of using homemade concentrate mix.
Area specific mineral mixtures

Based on the regional differences in the mineral distribution in soils, plants and the feed resources grown in a particular region the concept of area specific mineral mixture was started. Under the all India coordinated project, NIANP Bangalore has successfully come out with area specific mineral mixtures for the Karnataka state, and this has been taken up by the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) on commercial basis and implemented successfully (Gowda and Prasad, 2005). The major response to its use has been in terms of improved reproductive performance besides improvement in the productivity. The technology is similarly being replicated in different regions of the country by the participating centers in the All India coordinated project. Further with regard to the mineral supplementation the concept of chelated minerals or organic minerals are catching up and in high producing milch animals, it was observed that some of the minerals were limiting and supplementation through chelates or organic form has shown positive production responses. Few private companies are manufacturing and marketing the chelated minerals in India and in years to come with improved productivity use of organic minerals will find wider applications.
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Total mixed rations

Conventionally roughages (green/dry fodder) and concentrates are fed separately and due to differences in the nutrient density, the efficiency of nutrient utilization is also different. Feeding of concentrates and roughages together in a mixed form result in a steady supply of nutrients resulting in better efficiency of nutrient utilization and improved production, and this forms the basis for the total mixed rations (TMR). Feeding of TMR improves the milk yield by 10-15%, and the milk yield of animals remains uniform over a longer period with a longer persistent peak yield (Walli, 2009). Although the technology of TMR has the advantage in terms of better production, minimizing wastage and ease of handling (transport and storage) and ability to use a wide variety of feed resources, the technology has not been adopted in a big way. The major reason for this is the cost of processing and the cost of processed feed blocks.
Strategic supplementation
More often the diets of milch animals under the field conditions are deficient in energy and at times protein may also be deficient. Identifying the limiting nutrient and supplementing energy in the form of cereal grains (maize, sorghum, finger millet) or protein in the form of oil cakes can improve the milk production by half to one liter per animal (Chandrasekhariah et al ., 2008). This strategy has been successfully tested under farmer's field conditions with different roughage sources paddy, finger millet and sorghum stover based diets in Maharasthra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh under the National agriculture Technology Project. This approach can be easily adapted to different feeding situations in the different parts of country using locally available energy and protein supplements.
Alternate feed resources

Efficient utilization of feed resources that are available and generated locally reduces the feeding costs and is highly desirable. A wide variety of feed resources are available in different agro eco regions, and their efficient utilization can help in improving the production and profitability. As an example, there is a shortage of dry roughage in coastal Karnataka districts and dairy farmers generally buy paddy straw that is transported from neighboring districts and feed their dairy animals. During the recent past few years, the price of paddy straw became very high (7-9 Rs/kg), and the farmers were finding it difficult to manage. To address this problem NIANP developed a technology to make use of the areca sheath as dry fodder substituting paddy straw using a small-scale feed processing unit and the farmers from the region have accepted and adopted this technology. This technology is being taken up by the Milk federation in a bigger way in the coastal districts of Karnataka where there is a shortage of dry fodder and areca sheath is available in plenty. This is just one example to show how the field problems can be addressed by appropriate technical interventions and institutional support. Certainly, with new crops being introduced and processing of agricultural produce, there are more opportunities for utilizing different locally available feed resources in different production systems and all that is required is appropriate technical and institutional support to make these technologies successful and viable. In addition to the above approaches, there is a strong need for better management of all classes of dairy animals in terms of the proper care and feeding of animals during different stages of the life cycle as they can have an important bearing on the age at puberty, persistency of peak yield, inter calving intervals, health and overall productivity and profitability in dairy. Managing fodder resources should go hand in hand with scientific livestock management that includes enhancing the productivity levels of low producers and ensuring timely occurrence of production cycles like insemination, calving and lactation cycle as this can ensure that animals are
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not marinated in unproductive conditions leading to losses in monetary terms and draining the limited feed resources. To summarize, the potential and demand of dairy in India is enormous and better management of feed resources and feeding is an important strategy which needs to be ably supported by appropriate policy and institutional interventions in other major aspects of dairy like- breed and marketing in improving the productivity and profitability.
References
BAHS. 2010. Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics AHS series #12. Government of India. Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying and Fisheries, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi. Chandrasekharaiah, M., Sampath, K T and Praveen, U S. 2008. Effect of feeding bypass protein on milk production performance in crossbred cows. Indian J Anim Sci, 78: 527-530. Gowda, N.K.S and Prasad, C.S. 2005. Macro and micro nutrient utilization and milk production in crossbred dairy cows fed ragi and paddy straw as dry roughage source. Asian Australasian Journal of Animal Science. 18: 48-53 Sampath, K. T., Ramachandra, K.S. and Anandan, S. 2005. Livestock feed and fodder resources of India and strategies for their judicious utilization: A review. Indian J Anim Sci 2005, 75, 1438-43. Sampath, K.T., Prasad, C.S., Ramachandra, K. S., Sundarshan, K and Subba Rao. 1997. Indian J Anim Sci. 67:706-708. Walli, T.K. 2009. Crop residue based densified feed block technology for improving ruminant productivity. In satellite symposium on fodder technology held at New Delhi.pp67-73.
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2
Alternate Feeds for Livestock Feeding
K. S. Prasad and S.B.N. Rao National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Feed represents the largest single expense input for livestock production. Livestock producers look for low-cost feed alternatives, especially when traditional feeds are expensive. Many of these alternative feed are by-products and waste products from the processing of various food and fiber crops, or crop residues, tree leaves, etc. These alternatives feed can fit into a feeding program as the protein supplement, energy, roughage sources, as a replacement for part of the ration. Before supplementing alternate feeds several factors should be considered to use in livestock diets.
Some factors that should be kept in mind when selecting and using alternative feeds for animal feeding
1. Consistency in availability. The supply and quality of many alternative feeds are inconsistent. 2. Nutrient composition and nutrient availability. Alternative feeds, in general, are more variable in composition and quality than traditional feeds such as corn. 3. Consistency of composition. Composition can vary not only from source to source, but it also can vary from lot to lot, or even within the same lot from the same source. 4. Suitability. Be sure that the alternative feed is suitable for the class of animals to be fed e.g., a bulky, lownutrient-density feed may not be desirable for growing animals but may be suitable for mature animals. 5. Perishability. Factors that can influence perishability include moisture level, fat content and composition, storage method, storage management, storage time, etc. 6. Freedom from health hazards. Feeds can contain toxic substances, disease organisms, and/or other contaminants. Do not use contaminated feed unless you can eliminate or neutralize the contaminants inexpensively.
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7. Effect on end product. The alternative feed when included in the diet should not harm the end product. It should not affect the taste and/or quality of the product or compromise food safety. 8. Legality. Be aware that some feeds such as meat and bone meal derived from ruminant animals (cattle, sheep) are illegal to feed to cattle. Also, be aware that some pesticides used in crop production may make crop residues unsuitable for cattle and illegal to feed to them. 9. Cost. In addition to purchase price, consider added costs associated with the use of an alternative e.g. transportation, special handling and processing, and storage.
I. Non-conventional protein feedstuffs Oil cakes and meals Guar meal

Guar meal is the by-product after extraction of gum from guar (Cyamopsis tetragondoba) seeds. It consists of the outer seed coat and the germ of guar seeds. It is a potential source of protein and has been used to feed livestock and poultry. It contains about one and a half times more protein than guar seed and is comparable to that of other oil cakes. It can induce chronic diarrhoea when fed as the sole concentrates to growing calves. Other two deleterious factors in guar seed meal are that the meal has a residual gum which is an indigestible polysaccharide that leads to sticky faeces. Attempts are now being made to reduce the gum content in the meal which tends to have a growth depressing effect. The second is that it has a trypsin inhibitor.
Neem seed cake

Neem seed cake is produced from neem (Azadirachta indica) seeds after extraction of the oil. It is estimated that about 300,000 tons of neem seed cake are available annually in India. Experiments have been carried out in NIANP and showed that up to 50% of soybean meal could replaced with neem cake without any adverse effect on the growth of sheep.
Palm kernel cake

Palm kernel cake (PKC) like rice bran, is valuable in supplying both dietary energy and protein, but is used mainly as a protein feed. However, the protein content is low, although its quality is high. It also has poor palatability. The high fibre content makes it less suitable for feeding non-ruminants. It has often been found to raise the fat content in milk. The ME content of PKC for poultry on as feed basis was 5.61 MJ/kg. One of the problems concerning the feed is the variable quality, partly due to the presence of the shell content.
Rubber seed meal

Rubber seed meal is a valuable protein source and is available, notably in South India. The crude protein content is about 25%. An assessment of amino acid content suggests that the methionine content is lower than in coconut cake and palm kernel cake, but the lysine and cystine contents are higher. The main limitation in rubber seed meal, however, is the presence of hydrocyanic acid - up to 540 ppm. However, both heat treatment and storage can be used to reduce it. 20% dietary level has been found satisfactory in diets for layers provided it is suitably supplemented with other protein sources, and ME value of 7.49 MJ/kg for the meal was reported.
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Sal seed meal

Sal seed meal is a by-product from sal (Shorea robusta). Sal seeds have valuable oil content, and the residual meal is therefore, free from most of the fat. The meal has about 10 to 15% crude protein and about 25 to 27% crude fibre. The tannin content appears to be variable, 3.5 to 7.6%, and ME value of 11.10 MJ/kg. The use of the meal in livestock rations has been reviewed and concluded that it is comparable to that of poor-quality roughages.
Tamarind seed hulls

The seeds contain 30-45% red hulls and 60-65% white kernel. The hulls and kernels have about 9.1 and 15.4% crude protein and 11.3 and 1.5% crude fibre respectively. The seed hulls are palatable and can replace 10-15% of maize in the concentrate mixture of crossbred calves. In addition, it appears that hulls rich in tannins (13 to 15%) helped in improved utilization of the groundnut cake component of the ration, perhaps forming a protective coat for groundnut protein. Kernels, on the other hand, can replace 95% of the maize component of concentrate mixture in growing cross-bred calves. The DCP and TDN contents of tamarind seed were 1.256 and 63.9 % respectively.
II. Non-conventional feeds from field and plantation crops Rice husk
Rice husk or hulls constitute another by-product of rice production. Although these are not as important as rice straw or rice bran for animal feeding in nutritional value, especially to ruminants a valuable roughage source. In rice milling, approximately 17% of the paddy, yield results in the husk. Attempts have been made to feed the husk to animals. For pigs and poultry, small quantitys of finely ground rice husk was used as a diluent of other high-energy feeding stuffs. In India, rice husk has been substituted for rice straw in diets for 13-15 month-old Hariana Jersey calves, and it was observed that the rate of growth declined to 42.5, 65.8 and 48.1% at 33, 66 and 100% levels of substitution compared to the control. Attempts have also been made to increase the nutritive value of rice husk by increasing the crude protein content through the process of ammoniation, delignification and de-silication.
Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) Bagasse

Bagasse, the residue after juice extraction from the sugarcane plant, is an important by-product from sugarcane cultivation in a number of countries in the region. It constitutes approximately 15-20% of sugarcane tops with a moisture content of about 50%. At present, the material is used mainly as a fuel in sugar factories, and on a limited scale for feeding animals. Balanced diets with 20 to 30% bagasse levels for cattle produced rapid and economic gains. In Pakistan, 10% bagasse in the diet produced economical live weight gain in bullocks.
Banana
There are two by-products from banana cultivation that are potentially valuable feeds: banana rejects or wastes and banana stem. These are produced in significant quantities in banana growing regions. Waste
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bananas are fed directly to ruminants and pigs. Banana stems are another by-product of banana cultivation. The value of the stems is as a source of minerals, which are concentrated in the pith of the stems.
Cassava
Two by-products are available from cassava roots; one is cassava peelings, which are usually discarded during the manufacture of cassava chips for feeding animals, especially ruminants. Quite often the peelings are not removed and are a component of the chips. The second by-product is cassava pulp or waste, due to the manufacture of cassava flour. This waste is usually collected wet from the factories and fed directly with a protein concentrate. It can be dried and then sell it as an animal feed. In India, cassava pulp replaced 50% of the ragi flour in diets for layers, which have been shown to lay about 12% more eggs. Cassava residue fed with urea, and molasses have also been found suitable for growing lambs in India.
Coffee
Two by-products are produced from the coffee plant: coffee hulls and coffee pulp. The utilization of both by-products is relatively unimportant at the moment mainly due to their low availability, but this situation could possibly improve in time with increased yield. In India, spent coffee, or by product from the coffee extraction plant has been found to contain 16.3% crude protein, 12.7% ether extract and 38.4% crude fibre. When fed to female buffalo calves, it did not furnish adequate metabolisable energy. Of the two, coffee hulls are much poorer in nutritive value probably due to the high lignin content.
Sago (Metroxylon spp.)

The sago palm produces valuable carbohydrate by-product feeds. These include unprocessed sago pith and sago refuse produced from the manufacture of sago starch. The process starts with the use of sago trunks from which the bark is first removed. Over 90% of the material is then used to produce the sago rasp from which about 20% sago starch is produced. The remainder of about 80% is sago waste.
III. Non-conventional feeds from tree crops Cocoa

Several studies have been reported concerning the utilization of cocoa pod husks (CPH) in diets for poultry, pigs and in ruminants. CPH has been used in diets for farm livestock in several studies, comparing CPH to cassava meal and maize; it was found that cows fed CPH produced a comparable yield of milk to those fed maize. Sheep and goats can tolerate approximately 25% cocoa pods in maintenance diets. The pods were used to replace cassava.
Oil palm
Oil palm by-products are emerging as important new feeds. This is associated with the rapidly expanding land area under the crop in this country.
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Palm press fibre (PPF)

The digestibility of PPF varying at levels from 10 to 60% was determined in balance trials. The digestibility of dry matter was highest with 10% inclusion of PPF. Both crude protein and crude fibre digestibility decreased with increasing level of PPF. Ether extracts digestibility increased with increasing level of PPF inclusion, and significant differences were noted between treatments. It was concluded from these studies that the optimal level of PPF inclusion of 10%.
Palm oil mill effluent (POME)

POME is a general term which refers to the effluent from the final stages of palm oil production in the mill. It includes various liquids, dirt, residual oil and suspended solids. It contains about 95% water. One of the problems concerned with feeding of POME is the high moisture content. In order to increase the solids content for animals, attempts have been made to reduce the moisture content in the effluent. Palm oil mills are using the decanter system to provide a different type of by-product in the form of palm oil solids (POS). The digestibility of the dry matter of POME in diets containing 10 to 60% level was high (87.7%), and significant difference existed between treatments. A 10% level of POME gave the best results, and this was also consistent with the highest digestibility of energy.
IV. Non-conventional feedstuffs from fruit processing Mango kernel

Mango seed kernels are by-products of mangoes (Mangifera indica L) used for human consumption. It comprises the seeds and kernels and possibly also the skins. In countries such as in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh where mangoes are abundant, these by-products are also available in quite large quantities. India alone produces an estimated 1.0 - 1.5 million tons of the by-products. It has been reported that a 10% level of inclusion is optimum for dairy cattle, which produced a daily milk yield of 8 kg/day. Early work indicated that mango seed kernel had a DCP content of 6.1% and a TDN content of 50.0%. One limiting factor in this feed is the presence of about 5 - 10% of tannins.
Pineapple wastes
Pineapple cultivation and canning of the fruits produce large volumes of waste materials of potential value for livestock feeding. Its nutritive value is equivalent to cereal grains on a dry matter basis. An alternative approach has been used in Malaysia: ensiling the pineapple wastes together with poultry litter to feed beef cattle. The utilization of the wastes not only from the canning process but also the fibrous residues (leaves and stems) at harvesting time thus represents a potential possibility.
V. Leaves of field and tree crops Leaves of field crops

Leaves from field and tree crops are important non-conventional feedstuffs that are extensively used for feeding ruminants. A discussion of some of the more important ones is therefore relevant.
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Banana leaves (Musa sp.)

Banana leaves are very commonly fed to ruminants, especially goats, throughout the region. Usually, the leaves are fed when the trees are chopped following fruit harvesting. The leaves are palatable, The DCP of banana stems is inferior to that of banana leaves.
Cassava (Manihot esculenta) leaves

Cassava leaves are emerging to be valuable feedstuffs. They have not been utilized to any great extent in the past because of the presence of polyphenol inhibitors, cyanogenic glucosides and tannins which are toxic. But this depends on the variety used, since higher levels of HCN are found in the "bitter" varieties.
Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) leaves

Jackfruit leaves are very extensively used for feeding cattle and sheep, and particularly goats in many countries in the tropics. An assessment of nutritive value indicated a DCP and TON content of 2.6% and 21.4%.
Jute (Corchorus)
Although jute, (Corchorus) is cultivated mainly as a fibre crop in eastern India, it produced leaves that are useful to ruminants. Similar to cassava leaves which have a toxic HCN content depending on variety, the leaves of the Capsularies variety are "bitter" while those of the Ditorius variety are "sweet" and edible. The DCP and TDN contents were 1.40 and 60.6% respectively. Feeding Ditorius leave hay to Sindhi calves gave an average daily gain 500 g compared to 433 g per day for the control diet without the leaves.
Pigeon pea leaves (Cajanus cajan)

Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) is a valuable legume useful for both human and animal nutrition. The principal product of the plant is seed which is used for human consumption. But the plant is also useful as a source of fodder especially to ruminants. Zebu cattle grazing on pangola grass/ pigeon pea grown gained an average of 29 kg in 93 days during a severe drought whereas cattle on the grass alone lost weight.
Spent tea leaves

Spent tea leaves (STL) are by-products of the tea industry. STL contains approximately 30% crude protein in the dry matter. It has been shown that about 7% of the total DMI can be satisfactorily used as an N supplement for NaOH treated straw and a saving of up to 25% in cost.
Sun hemp (Crotalaria juncea)

Sun hemp leaves are valuable feeds. Though Crotalaria juncea is non-toxic, but other varieties are toxic. Sun hemp is commonly cultivated for fibre production as a soil cover and also as a green manure. It contains 13.4% DCP and 58.9% TDN fed to sheep. The corresponding values for goats were 10.3% DCP and 44.6% TDN, and for cattle 12.7% DCP and 66.0% TDN. Sun hemp meal at an 8% level in chick diets was found to give maximum weight gains.
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Water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes)

Water hyacinth is an aquatic plant and is found throughout the region, notably in India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. It grows rapidly and has tended to clog streams and ponds in areas where there is much surface water as in Bangladesh and Thailand. The feed has been traditionally used especially by Chinese farmers, after cooking it, to feed pigs in the densely populated pig rearing areas of the Region as in Thailand and Malaysia. However, this application represents only a fraction of the water hyacinth used in this way.
Conclusion
The time has come to explore and utilize the non conventional feeds, even available in small quantities, should be utilized region-wise so that can meet the requirement of feeds for livestock and reduces the competition between human and livestock for common food grains. Judicial use of land and water resources is the need of the hour. The ground portion in plantation crops like rubber, coconut, palm, areca nut, etc. could be used for different suitable cultivated legume and non legume fodders like shade tolerance, etc., according to the age/growth of the main crop.
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3
Round the Year Fodder Production and its Conservation for Intensive Dairy Production
K. Giridhar and S. Jash National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Green fodder is the second largest feed resource for the country. It is the first choice for economic milk production. The profitability of livestock rearing is dependent on the sources of feed and fodder, as 65-70% of the total cost is attributed to feed. Any saving in feeding cost would directly contribute to increase in profitability. Green fodder is the essential component of feeding high-yielding milch animals to improve the milk production. The benefits of balanced feeding of milch animals can be appreciated within a short span of time, in the form of improved milk production. By using good-quality forage, particularly leguminous fodder, feeding of concentrate can be reduced significantly. The area under fodder crops is declining in various states as shown in the following table, adding further to the problem of deficit of green fodder availability in the country. Table 1. Area under fodder crops ('000 hectares)
State AP Gujarat Karnataka Punjab All India 2001 104 1103 46 715 8702 2011 85 821 35 540 7769
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India There is an urgent need to improve the productivity of existing acreage under fodder crops by improving cropping intensity. For ensuring uninterrupted supply of green fodder throughout the year, it is essential to have proper cropping plan with different fodder crops in an overlapping system to obtain economically viable maximum forage yield. Selection of high-yielding perennial grass like hybrid napier or guinea grass as the main component of the system is ideal to ensure continuous supply of green fodder. Providing irrigation at regular intervals after the cessation of rains will ensure better biomass yields. A high
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forage yielding legume like Berseem suits well for states like Punjab, Haryana, U.P, etc. for cultivation during rabi season. All India coordinated research project on forage crops conducted experiments on different fodder cropping systems in various parts of the country and suggested suitable rotations. Some of the recommended cropping systems for various regions are given in Table 2.
Table 2. Year round fodder production systems

Region/Centre I. Northern region Pantnagar (U.P) - (Tarai region, red and yellow soils) Hissar ( Haryana) -(semi-arid, sandy soils) II. Central and Western regions Jhansi (U.P) - (Semi-arid, red soils) Suitable Crop rotations 1. Dinanath grass - Berseem - Maize + cowpea 2. Napier bajra hybrid + Subabool 1. Napier bajra hybrid + Berseem 2. Napier bajra hybrid + Lucerne 1. Napier bajra hybrid + Cowpea - Cowpea -Berseem. 2. Cowpea - sorghum + cowpea - Berseem. 1. Napier bajra hybrid + cowpea - Cowpea -Berseem. 2. Sorghum + cowpea- Berseem + sarson -Jowar + cowpea.
Jabalpur (M.P) - (Sub-humid, black soils)
III. Eastern region Kanke (Bihar) (sub-humid, red acid soils)
Kalyani (West Bengal) (Sub-humid, alluvial soils) IV. Southern region Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) (Semi arid, black soil) Vellayani (Kerala) ( humid, red soils)
1. Bajra +cowpea - Maize + cowpea - Oats. 2. Maize + cowpea - Jowar + cowpea - Berseem + sarson. 1.Maize + cowpea - Deenanath grass oats. 2. Maize + rice bean - Berseem - Sarson. 1. Napier bajra hybrid + hedge lucerne. 2. Sorghum + cowpea- Maize +cowpea- Maize + cowpea. 1.Guinea grass 2.Congosignal grass in Coconut gardens
In Southern states, if land is limited and irrigation facilities are minimal; a small farmer can opt for intercropping of cowpea both in kharif and rabi seasons (one or two rows) in hybrid napier, bajra, spaced at 100 50 cm. In dry land areas, relying on crop production alone is risky due to the vagaries of monsoon. A tree-cum-crop farming system is appropriate for such situations. Alley cropping, a version of agro-forestry system, can meet the multiple requirements like food, fodder and fertilizer. Alley cropping is a system in which food crops are grown in alleys formed by hedge rows of trees/shrubs. The hedge rows are cut back at planting and kept pruned during cropping to prevent shading and to competition with food crops. Subabul or Gliricidia are ideal as the hedge rows. Drought-tolerant grain crops like Sorghum or Bajra can be selected for cultivation in the alleys during the monsoon season. A few important details like suitable soil, seed rate, green fodder yield, etc., for major fodder crops are given in Table 3.
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Table 3. Details of major fodder crops

Crop and important varieties Suitable soils Seed rate (kg/ha) and spacing 40 30 15 cm Harvesting time (days after sowing) 80-90 (late maturing varieties) 65-75 (early varieties) 75-90 (late) 60-75 (early) Green fodder yield (q/ha) 300-400 (single cut) 500-750 (multi cut) 350-550
Jowar Pusa chari, MP chari, Ksheerasagar, PC-6,9 and 23, HC-171 and 260, Co-27 and CoFS -29 Maize African tall, APFM-8, J-1006 and VL-54 Composites like Vijay, Moti and Jawahar Bajra Giant bajra, Rajbajra chari-2, BAIF Bajra-1, AVKB-19, Deenabandhu & Co-8 Cowpea BL-2, UPC-4200,5286 and 5287,IGFRI-450, Shweta, Co-5 and CoFC-8 Lucerne Anand-2 and 3, Type-9, RL-88 and Co-1
Sandy loam to clay
Loam to silty clay loam
40 30 15 cm
Sandy loam to loamy sand
10 25 10 cm
60-75
250-325
Sandy loam to loamy sand
25 30 x 15 cm
60-80
150-200
Loamy soils with good drainage
15 25 cm-solid sowing
First cut 75 to 90 days after sowing. Subsequent cuts at about 30 days interval. First cut at 65 to 75 days. Subsequent cuts at about 40 days interval. First cut 75 days. Subsequent cuts at about 45 days interval.
700-750
Napier-bajra hybrid Sampoorna, IGFRI- 3 and 6, RBN-1, PBN-83, Co-1,3 and 4, BH-18 & PNB-233 Guinea grass Riversdale, Macuenni, Hamil, PGG-19 and 101, Co-1 and 2, BG1 and 2
Sandy loam to clay loam
40,000 root slips or stem cuttings 50 x 50 cm Seeds @ 2.5 kg/ha or 60,000 root slips
1600-2000
Loam to sandy loam
1100-1500 (Shade tolerant and hence, suitable for orchards and agro-forestry systems) 700-900 (Performs well even under waterlogged conditions)
Para grass
Loam to sandy loam
40,000 root slips 50 x 50 cm
First cut after 80 days and further cuts at 45 days interval.
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Conservation of fodder
Conserving the excess fodder produced during plush season is essential to tide over the limited availability of green fodder during the lean periods.
Hay
The primary object in hay making is to reduce the water content of the green herbage so that the same can be preserved for long, without undergoing spoilage like fermentation, and mould development. The green fodder harvested at pre-flowering to flowering stage is dried to reduce the moisture level to about 20 %. Goodquality hay can be produced from fodder crops that have more proportion of leaves and thin stems. Legumes like Lucerne, Berseem, Cowpea, etc., are well suited for hay making. Goats relish the hay prepared from leguminous crops. Good hay should be leafy and greenish in colour. Proper drying will ensure that hay is free from fungus or moulds.
Silage
It is a preservation of green fodder in its original form through anaerobic fermentation. Fodders which have thick stem, and more sugar content like maize and sorghum are well suited for silage making. The fresh fodder harvested during grain filling stage with desired moisture content of 65-70% is best for ensiling. Adequate trampling is required to remove oxygen for ensuring anaerobic fermentation. The upper portion should be covered with about four inches thick straw layer followed by two inches thick soil and a polythene sheet. Care must be taken to prevent the entry of water and air. The silage will be ready in about five week's time. Good silage will have greenish-yellow colour with a vinegar odour and a pH of 4.2 or less. Pit silos are suitable for the farmers having resources and higher number of milch animals. The technique of silage making in poly bags and plastic bins was tested under participatory technology development in the adopted villages under the NAIP livelihood project in Chitradurga district. The small holders were receptive to this low-cost technology and readily adopted this method as their need for silage was in limited quantities to tide over the green fodder deficit during the lean months.
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4
Value Addition to Fodder for Sustainable Ruminant Production
U. Krishnamoorthy Department of Livestock Production and Management Veterinary College, KVAFSU, Bangalore 560 024
Value addition to a commodity refers to increasing its value concerning cost by means of processing to increase its acceptance by the consumers. Processing can be anything from changing appearance, storage quality, density, durability, composition, etc. Thus, it is logical to expect that the value added or processed products are more expensive than the raw or unprocessed products. However, the advantage of using valueadded products is that their use efficiency is higher for the purpose for which they are intended. For example, a compounded livestock feed offered in the form of mash versus pellets, mash is cheaper but wastage can be higher; shelf life is lower as against the pellets that are more expensive, fewer wastage with a better shelf life. Thus, the additional cost of pelleting mash is recovered from reducing wastage of feed and the additional advantages such as increased shelf life and convenience of handling makes pellets more preferred than mash. However, when the feed cost increases, the cost of product derived from livestock also increases. Thus, value addition to a product can be infinite but for economic viability, there is a limit beyond which it is unsustainable. This is all the more important in the ruminant sector, because sustainable ruminant production is one of the key components in supporting rural livelihood, income generation and food security, wherein feed and fodder constitute the major input. Therefore, value addition to feed and fodder is a necessity but in a judicious manner to keep it economically viable. In India, although crop residues constitute the bulk of feed input in ruminant production, efficiency of utilization is far from satisfactory. A significant amount of crop residues are burnt because of the constraints associated with handling, transportation, and nutritional value. If these constraints are overcome their wastage can be minimized. Although this can add cost to the crop residues, increased use of crop residues will help in reducing dependence on compound feeds that are more expensive.
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Compaction (i) Dried crop residues

Conventionally crop residues are dried and preserved and those in excess are burnt. Burning of straw is common with rice straw, maize straw, sugarcane tops and thrash but not with sorghum because sorghum straw is relatively easy to pack. Therefore, intervention to facilitate compaction of bulky crop residues such as rice straw, maize straw and sugarcane tops can add value to these products. However, the technology should be cost effective. Baling machines used for baling hay in European countries are too expensive and do not seem to be appropriate to our farming system. The traditional system of making small bundles need to be improved in a way to make it labour friendly, rather than making it labour independent with fully automated machines. The interventions can be simple such as using plastic ties, and hand operated packing devices. The cost of transportation of bundled straw can be reduced by 50 per cent, and the wastage during storage can also be minimized although there are no published data on the magnitude of reduction in wastage and transportation costs.
(ii) Wet crop residues

Compaction is necessary to facilitate ease of handling, transportation and storage. This principle of compaction to prolong storage of green fodder has been applied in preparation of silage. Wet crop residues after grain harvest can also be converted into silage by the addition of a source of soluble sugars such as jaggery or molasses at the rate of 2 per cent by weight of wet crop residues. In an experiment comparing the effect of feeding dried stover and ensiled stover of both maize and sorghum, it revealed that feeding of ensiled stover resulted in a significant increase in milk yield, milk fat and SNF content in milk. In the US maize stover silage was used in the 1930's when the production levels of cows were in the range of 10 to 15 kg per day. In China, maize stover is widely used for making silage whereas in India nearly 40 per cent of maize stover is burnt.
Hay making
Cultivable green grasses and legumes under the intensive system can be converted into hay. In general, hay making is not a popular practice in India. Although all grass and legume forages can be converted into hay under Indian conditions because of abundant sun light, thin stemmed tall grasses and legumes with high-yield potential are better suited because of ease with which they can be harvested, dried, compacted, transported and stacked. Making small bundles of 10 to 20 kg hay with 80 per cent grass and 20 per cent legume can be a simple, economic, nearly balanced fodder for low producing cows and buffaloes as compared to complete feed block prepared in feed plants, which involves a huge investment for infrastructure and transportation logistics and handling.
Dry matter production

The dry matter and nutrient content of cultivated fodder has a significant impact on production. In this regard, a combination of grass and legume should be considered in the fodder production program. In general, biomass yield from grasses per unit of land is almost twice as high as that from legumes. Therefore, cultivation of grass and legume forage on equal area will suit a good feeding program. Time of harvest of grasses, and legumes is also equally important. As the plants mature, the digestibility declines, however, the dry matter yield increases. Dry matter is important to fulfil the bulk requirement of ruminants. In regions where fodder scarcity
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is a routine phenomenon, strategy should be to produce adequate fodder dry matter. Dry matter content in cultivated fodders in pre-flowering stages is as low as 10 per cent, and it gradually increases as plants mature. Therefore, our recommendation is to harvest fodder crops not before at least 50 per cent of the plants have flowered. At this stage, dry matter content will be in the range of 25 to 30 per cent and are relatively easy to convert into hay.
Chaffing
Chaffing is intended to reduce particle size and to minimize the scope for selection by the animals. Chaffing increases the bulk of fodder, and this is undesirable from the point of transportation and storage. Therefore, it is desirable to chaff hay or crop residues or green fodder just prior to feeding or else adopt a compaction for storage such as silage or fodder block.
Summary
In this article, value addition to fodder for sustainable ruminant production in the context of prevailing farming practices in India is discussed. Although the options are not new, focusing on harvesting the crop at optimum stage, sun drying and densification by appropriate packing, ensiling of wet crop residues by appropriate additives and cultivation of grass-legume combination can contribute effectively to value addition to fodder for sustainable ruminant production.
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5
Rumen Bypass Nutrient Technology and its Relevance for Sustainable Milk Production in High Yielding Dairy Animals
M. Chandrasekharaiah, N.M. Soren, S.B.N. Rao and C. S. Prasad National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Bypass nutrients are the nutrient fractions, which gets fermented at a lower degree in the rumen, which becomes available at the lower part of the gastrointestinal tract for the subsequent digestion and absorption. In addition to this, the bypass nutrients provide a steady supply of nutrients instead of providing all the nutrients immediately with sudden bursts from easily soluble nutrients. Initially, the concept of bypass nutrients was used for proteins, to describe the protein quality in ruminants, but subsequently, this term has been extended to other nutrients like carbohydrates and fats that could also escape rumen fermentation partially and digested and absorbed in the small intestine. These concepts are useful not only for better utilization of nutrients but also minimize the ruminal fermentation losses thereby reducing the wastage of nutrients into the environment.
Bypass proteins
The microbial protein synthesis is an energy-dependent process. Deficiency of dietary energy, especially during early part of the lactation, which is not uncommon, results in correspondingly lower synthesis of bacterial protein in the rumen leading to reduced availability of protein for milk production. Therefore, for sustaining higher level of milk yield and faster growth rate, ruminants need more dietary protein than the flora in the rumen can utilize. However, higher dietary protein intake, especially rumen degradable protein (RDP) often results in increasing loss of ammonia from the rumen. Excess ammonia is converted into urea in the liver, the major part of which is excreted through urine resulting in the loss of part of dietary protein. Adequate protein supply to high-yielding cows without stress from excess ammonia can be ensured by decreasing the degradability of dietary proteins. This has led to the development of techniques to protect greater proportion of dietary proteins from the degradation in the rumen. Over the last two decades, more and more quantitative knowledge on the protein requirements of ruminants has been acquired and on this basis new systems for protein evaluation of feeds, and for expression of the protein requirements of ruminants have been proposed (ARC 1980/NRC 1989). These systems require that the protein need of the ruminants must be supplied in terms of:
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a) Rumen degradable protein (RDP) b) Undegradable dietary protein (UDP) or bypass protein An important pre-requisite for the implementation of the new protein evaluation system mentioned above is the expression of the protein requirements of ruminants on RDP and UDP basis and also the description of the protein content of ruminant feeds on RDP and UDP basis. The RDP and UDP content of some of the commonly used feed stuffs (Sampath et al., 1999, Chandrasekharaiah et al 2001, 2002) based on results of the studies conducted in different parts of the world are given Table 1. Therefore, it is desirable to include feed materials of medium or high bypass protein content in the ration of animals yielding large quantities of milk, especially in the early stages of lactation, under such feeding regimes, as the microbial protein synthesized may not be sufficient to meet the protein requirement in these animals. A key to efficient feed utilization is to formulate rations that optimize microbial protein synthesis and also supply amounts of rumen undegradable or bypass protein needed for growth, production and reproduction in ruminants. Table 1. Crude protein (CP), rumen degradable protein (RDP) and undegradable protein (UDP) / bypass protein content of feeds and fodders
Feedstuffs CP RDP UDP (bypass protein)
-- gram per kg dry matter-Concentrates Bajra Barley Brewers grains Coconut cake (solvent extracted) Coconut cake (expeller) Corn gluten meal (60% CP) Corn gluten meal (40% CP) Cotton seed Cotton seed cake Cotton seed cake (solvent extracted) Distillers dried grain Gingelly / sesame / til cake Groundnut cake (expellar) Groundnut cake (Formaldehyde treated 1g/100g CP) Groundnut cake (Heat treated 130 C 3 Hrs) Groundnut cake (Heat treated 130 C 2 Hrs) Groundnut cake (Deoiled / solvent extracted) Horse gram Jowar Karanja cake Kokam cake Linseed cake Mahua seed cake Maize bran 120 100 260 270 240 600 400 170 350 360 290 350 450 450 450 450 480 240 100 320 140 280 185 160 38 79 122 62 173 126 148 78 179 137 133 266 315 194 194 234 408 137 20 173 17 162 105 59 82 21 138 208 67 474 252 92 171 223 157 84 135 256 256 216 72 103 80 147 123 118 80 101
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Maize grain Mustard cake Neem seed kernel cake Niger cake Oats Rice bran Rice bran extraction Rice broken Rice polish Rubber seed cake Safflower cake Salseed meal Silk cotton seed cake Soyabean meal extractions Sunflower meal Roughages Alfalfa, dehydrated Alfalfa fresh (Medicago sativa ) Berseem (Trifolium alexndrium ) Grass hay Guninea grass Maize early cut Oats (Avena sativa ) Para grass Rice straw Subabul (Leucaena leucocephola ) Sugar cane tops, chaffed, ensiled Wheat straw
90 350 386 330 100 140 160 110 120 280 220 90 370 460 300 200 200 259 29 82 165 126 71 40 250 68 33
27 263 217 244 84 91 64 35 61 202 141 27 289 276 165 80 152 127 13 33 96 65 34 15 80 10 18
67 87 169 86 16 49 96 75 59 78 79 63 81 184 135 120 48 132 16 49 69 61 37 25 170 58 15
Therefore, it is desirable to include feed materials of medium or high bypass protein content in the ration of animals yielding large quantities of milk, especially in the early stages of lactation, under such feeding regimes, as the microbial protein synthesized may not be sufficient to meet the protein requirement in these animals. A key to efficient feed utilization is to formulate rations that optimize microbial protein synthesis and also supply amounts of rumen undegradable or bypass protein needed for growth, production and reproduction in ruminants.
Bypass fats
During the early part of lactation in cows, the feed intake is reduced due to stress of calving and milk production. The energy available from the diet during this period may not be sufficient to meet the energy needs for body maintenance and milk production. Hence, body-fat reserves will be mobilized during this period, which ultimately lead to metabolic disorders like ketosis and reduced immune status and other reproductive related problems (Bell, 1995; Drackley, 1999). The cereal grains/concentrates or fats can be added to the rations to meet the energy requirement during the periods. However, the addition of concentrates at higher level decreases fibre intake and leads to acidosis (Palmquist and Jenkins, 1980).
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It may be beneficial to add fat to a diet to increase its energy density. However, addition of fats has certain disadvantages that include, inhibitory effects on ruminal fermentation leading to decrease in fiber digestibility, lower intestinal absorption at higher intake, low contribution to total oxidation of nutrients and sensitivity to nutrient imbalance causing reduced energy intake (Palmquist, 1994). So in order to use fats supplements for ruminants, they must be either protected from rumen fermentation or converted to soaps. Under these circumstances, bypass fats assume special significance in feeding of dairy animals. The fats can be protected by physical or chemical agents to bypass the rumen and to get digested in the lower tract (Kundu et al., 2008). Feeding of protected lipids to dairy animals increased the energy density of the diet without compromising fibre digestion in the rumen (Scott et al., 1995). Apart from increasing the energy intake of the animals, there is an added advantage of feeding protected unsaturated fat to cows, as the milk produced by such cows shall have higher unsaturated fatty acids in milk fat, which makes a softer butter, and is also safer for humans, especially the heart patients. Bypass fat can be supplemented to get designer milk with higher content of long chain unsaturated fatty acids for human beings (Gulati et al., 2001). Oil seeds provide natural partial protection from lipolysis and biohydrogenation in the rumen due to their hard outer seed coat (Ekeren et al., 1992). Cottonseed and full-fat soya are good sources of both rumen protected protein and fat (Naik, 2012). Feeding of these sources increases the supply of protein and energy to the animal for higher productivity. The advantages of feeding bypass fat supplements include increased milk yield as well as milk fat in dairy animals. Apart from this, bypass fat supplemental feeding results in improved reproductive efficiency in dairy animals.
Conclusions
Rumen bypass nutrient technology is very useful as feeding of bypass protein and bypass fat has the potential to improve productive as well as reproductive performance of dairy animals under Indian conditions.
References
ARC 1980.The nutrient requirements of ruminal livestock, commonwealth agricultural Bureal Farnham, Royal, slough, England. Bell A.W. 1995. Regulation of organic nutrient metabolism during transition from late pregnancy to early lactation. Journal of Animal Science 73: 2804 2819. Chandrasekharaiah, M., Sampath, K.T. and Thulasi, A. 2002. Rumen protein degradability of certain feedstuffs in cattle determined by nylon bag technique. Indian Journal of Dairy and Biosciences 13: 18 21. Chandrasekharaiah, M., Sampath, K.T., Thulasi, A. and Anandan, S. (2001). In situ protein degradability of certain feedstuffs in the rumen of cattle. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences. 71: 261 264. Drackley J.K. (1999). ADSA Foundation Scholar Award. Biology of dairy cows during the transition period: the final frontier? Journal of Dairy Science. 82: 2259 2273. Ekeren, P.A., Smith, D.R., Lunt, D.K. Smith, S.B. (1992). Ruminal biohydrogenation of fatty acids from high-oleate sunflower seeds. Journal of Animal Science. 70: 2574 2580. Gulati, S.K., Ryde, I., Kaur, R., Scott, T.W., Garg, M.L., Sherasia, P.L. and Singh, D.K. 2001. Role of protected nutrients sustainable milk production. In: Proc. of Xth Animal Nutrition Conference. Emerging nutritional technological for sustainable animal
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Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle production and environmental protection, Karnal, during 9 to 11th November 2011, pp 1-9 Kundu, S.S., Sirohi, S.K. and Singh, S. 2008. Significance of bypass fat feeding to dairy animals. Indian Dairy Science 80: 55 59. Naik, P.K. 2012. Feeding rumen protected fat to high yielding dairy cows. In: Animal nutrition advances and developments. (U.R. Mehra, Putan Singh, A.K.Verma, Eds.) SSPH publishers, Delhi, India. pp 529 548. NRC, 1989. Nutrient requirements of dairy cattle. 6th revised edition, National Academy of Science. Washington DC. Palmquist, D.L., Jenkins T.C. 1980. Fat in lactation rations: Review. Journal of Dairy Science 63:1 14. Palmquist D.L. (1994). The role of dietary fats in efficiency of ruminants. Journal of Nutrition 124:1377S-1382S. Sampath, K.T., Chandrasekharaiah, M., Thulasi, A., Anandan, S. 1999. Bypass protein for ruminants. Technical bulletin II National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore,pp 1-19. Scott, T.A., Shaver, R.D., Zepeda, L., Yandell, B. Smith, T.R. 1995. Effects of rumen-inert fat on lactation, reproduction, and health of high producing Holstein herds. Journal of Dairy Science 78: 2435 2451. Walli, T.K., Garg, M.R., Sampath, K.T., Srivastava, A., Singh, G.P., Gill, M., Ibrahim, M.N.M. 1995. Feeding of bypass nutrients to ruminants. Handbook for straw feeding systems (Kiran Singh and J B Schire, eds.), ICAR, New Delhi, pp 163 173.
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6
Minerals in Feeding of Dairy Animals and Concept of Area Specific Mineral Mixture
N.K.S. Gowda, D.T. Pal and C. S. Prasad National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Micronutrients are classified based on their needs and their distribution in various tissues in the animal body. Generally, they include minerals and vitamins. Minerals that are needed in relatively larger amounts are referred to as major or macro minerals and those that are needed in very small amounts are referred to as trace or micro minerals. The minerals are widely distributed in the body, with Calcium (Ca) and Phosphorus (P) being present in large amounts followed by magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Chlorine (Cl) and sulphur (S). Calcium constitutes about 46% and phosphorus about 29% of the total-body mineral, while others comprise of about 0.3%. Bones, muscles and other soft tissues are the primary storage sites for these minerals.
Functions
Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and fluorine are the constituents of bones and teeth and provide strength to the skeletal system. Minerals like Ca, P, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Mo and Se play an essential role in enzyme functioning, while Na, K and Cl help in maintaining osmotic pressure and acid-base balance in the body. Trace minerals play an important role in activating several enzyme systems responsible for various biochemical functions. Elements like Fe, Cu, Co, Mo and I are integral part of enzymes/vitamins/hormones. Minerals like selenium have synergistic action with vitamin E for acting as an antioxidant. There is an increased documental evidence of impaired productivity in livestock due to trace mineral deficiency (NRC, 2001). Elements like Cu, cobalt and iron are essential in haemoglobin and vitamin B 12 synthesis. Sulphur is a constituent of certain essential amino acids and is necessary for formation of wool, hoof and skin. Iodine is required for nutrient metabolism as it is a component of thyroid hormone. There is a potential relationship between dietary trace mineral levels and immune function (Corah, 1996). Prior to the appearance of clinical symptoms, the marginal deficiency would affect growth and fertility. Clinical symptoms appear only under acute deficiency.
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Requirements
Mineral requirements are highly dependent on the level of productivity, and the type of feed ingredients used in formulating the ration. Type of roughage used as a basal diet also will influence the mineral requirement. Presence of certain anti-nutritional factors like oxalates, tannins, silicates and phytates affect the utilization of certain mineral elements like Ca, P, Zn and Mn. Under such circumstances extra supplementation are required as marginal deficiencies under low levels of production become more important with increased levels of production. Most of the suggested mineral requirements are often based on growth performance and quantities of a specific mineral sufficient to prevent clinical signs of a deficiency. Selenium, Cu, Zn, Co deficiencies have been shown to alter various components of the immune system. Zinc requirements for spermatogenesis and testicular development in male sheep are higher than for growth and Mn requirements are similarly lower for growth than for fertility in sheep. Important differences in mineral utilization can be attributed to breed of animals. Marked ruminant animal variation within breeds in the efficiency of mineral absorption from the diet has been reported to be 535% for Mg, 40-80% for P, and 2-10% for Cu. Adequate intake of forages by grazing ruminants is essential to meet mineral requirements. Factors which greatly reduce forage intake, such as low protein content and increased lignification reduce total mineral consumption. When energy and protein supplies are adequate, livestock performance improves resulting in high mineral requirements. The micronutrient requirements can be influenced by metabolic or nutritional factors that result in other elements complexing specific micro elements rendering them nutritionally unavailable to the animal. Complexing between molybdenum and sulphur reduces the availability of copper to the animal. The detection of micronutrient deficiency or excesses involves clinical, pathological and analytical criteria in addition to the productive response from specific mineral supplementation. Clinical signs of mineral deficiency along with feed ingredient and animal tissue analysis would give a fair degree of information on the mineral deficiency or excesses. Even when the diet is deficient in certain micronutrients, the blood level of such a micronutrient remains fairly constant due to homeostasis.
Deficiency and Toxicity

Mineral deficiencies are more common in tropical countries where poor-quality straws / stovers form the bulk of the dry matter intake. Loss of hair, skin disorders, non - infectious abortion, low fertility, loss of appetite, bone abnormalities, tetany, diarrhoea and run-down conditions are some of the commonest clinical signs suggestive of mineral deficiencies. Mineral deficiency signs are often confusing as the observed symptoms can involve more than one mineral and can be associated with protein and / or energy inadequacy. Some minerals like Ca, P and Mg are stored in body tissues, and their deficiency symptoms are exhibited only after a period of time. Calcium and phosphorus deficiency can be observed more quickly, particularly in high producing animals and fast growing calves. Specific deficiency of individual minerals is discussed separately. Toxicity due to excess ingestion of some of the minerals is often region-specific and is closely related to the geochemical characteristics of soil, water and plant species. Such toxicities are mostly endemic in nature as in fluorosis and molybdenosis. Farm animals are not particularly sensitive to excess of most of the minerals, and the mineral level needs to be high before any toxicity symptoms are seen. However, certain species could be more sensitive. For example, copper toxicity may affect the sheep more than other species. Elements like fluorine, selenium, lead and cadmium may cause toxicity leading to impaired metabolism and loss in production.
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Reproduction
The precise mechanism of mineral-reproduction interactions is not fully understood because of the complexity of neuro-hormonal dialogue. Some minerals act directly on the gonads, while others act through hypophyseal - pituitary - gonadal axis. Elements like Se once considered toxic, is known to improve both male and female fertility when supplemented in the organic form as selenomethionine. During reproductive event reactive metabolites of oxygen are produced and are removed through the antioxidant process by Se and vitamin E and provide a convenient environment for reproduction. Similarly other trace elements like Cu, Zn, Mn, Cr and I also act as cofactors or activate enzymes and help in hormone synthesis and hence influence biochemical functions associated with reproduction. Because of their role in the endocrine system and in tissue integrity, minerals have a beneficial role to play in resumption of follicular growth and fertility in dairy cows and buffaloes. The potential for minerals to play a significant role in herd fertility is indisputable. The minerals that affect reproduction in ruminants are generally found within the trace element group, although deficiencies of calcium and phosphorous can also affect the fertility. Reproductive problems are frequently reported in association with trace mineral deficiencies, particularly copper, zinc, selenium and manganese. Deficiency of Ca may delay uterine involution and increase incidence of dystocia, retained placenta and prolapse of the uterus. Excess Ca may impair reproductive function by causing secondary deficiency of P, K Mg, Zn, Cu and other trace minerals by inhibiting their absorption in the intestine. Calcium-dependent mechanisms are involved in the steroid biosynthesis in the testes, adrenal glands and ovaries. Calcium plays a role in the utilization of cholesterol by mitochondria or by stimulating the conversion of pregnenolone to progesterone. Phosphorus is often associated with reproductive abnormalities in cattle, although infertility due to P deficiency is usually manifested after other signs are readily apparent. Phosphorus deficiency induces lowered conception rate, irregular estrus, anestrus, decreased ovarian activity, increased incidence of cystic follicles and generally depressed fertility. The involvement of P in Phospholipid and c-AMP synthesis may be a key to its effect on reproduction. Zinc deficiency in ruminants has been postulated to weaken the skin and other stratified epithelia as well as reducing the basal metabolic rate following infectious challenge. Zinc is a co-factor for many proteins and enzymes involved in acute phase response to infection and inflammation. Because the mammary gland is a skin gland, it is likely that zinc will have a positive role in its protection. Skin integrity of the teat has been shown to be specially linked with mastitis prevention. Zinc activates several enzyme systems and is a component of many metalloenzymes. It plays a vital role in hormone secretion, especially related to growth, reproduction, immunocompetence and stress. Zinc is also involved in the generation of keratin and in skin nucleic acid and collagen synthesis as well as in the maintenance of normal vitamin A concentration in plasma and in ovarian function. Many animals, therefore, require supplemental zinc in the diet for normal body function because of either low levels in the dietary ingredients or the presence of antagonistic factors, which decrease the bioavailability of the element. Antagonism might be due to metal ion interactions such as iron or copper. The need for iodine for the thyroid activity and for the prevention of goiter has been well recognized. Reproductive failure often is a secondary manifestation of thyroid dysfunction resulting from iodine deficiency in cattle. Fetal development during iodine deficiency may be arrested at any stage and lead to early embryonic death, fetal resorption, stillbirth or birth of goitrous, weak or dead fetus. Hypothyroidism also can reduce gonadotrophin output by the pituitary. Iodine deficiency in bulls is associated with depressed libido and deterioration of semen quality. Several studies have revealed that supplementation of iodine has improved fertility, reduced stillbirths, abortions and incidence of retained placenta. Infertility in dairy cattle resulting from irregular or suppressed estrus is often responsive to iodine therapy. Iodine supplementation is necessary in many areas of deficiency. Manganese is involved in the activities of several enzyme systems, including
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hydrolases, kinases, decarboxylases and transferases as well as Fe-containing enzymes, which require Mn in their activity. It is therefore involved in carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism. It is also needed for bone growth and maintenance of connective and skeletal tissue. Mn also plays a role in reproduction and in immunological function. Mn deficiency results in abnormal skeletal growth, increased fat deposition, reproductive problems and reduced milk production. Selenium (Se) is a semi-metal that is very similar to sulphur in its chemical properties. It is an essential component of glutathione enzyme system, and deficiency of selenium will make the cell vulnerable to oxidation and increase the requirement of vitamin E. It has therefore been usual to supplement in the diets of all classes of animals, because of its antioxidant properties. Cobalt is an essential trace element in ruminant diets for the production of vitamin B12, which has 4% cobalt in its chemical structure, by the rumen microbes to meet the vitamin B12 requirements of both the ruminal bacteria and the host animal. This means that a cobalt deficiency is really a vitamin B12 deficiency that would lead to anaemia.
Organo mineral complexes

Of late, there is a growing interest in the use of organic or chelated minerals due to the better bioavailability, improved reproductive performance, immune response, and decrease in the incidences of mastitis, and carcass quality (Spears 1996). Amino acid or polysaccharide complexes of trace minerals (CuLysine, Zn-methionine, Zn-Polysaccharide, Mn-lysine) have the highest biological activity and also have a higher stability and solubility. Organic forms of Zn and Cu as Zn-methionine or Cu-lysine bypass the rumen and are available at the intestine, thus protecting the essential amino acids from degradation and make them available for absorption in the gut. Zn-methionine supplementation in cattle has improved disease resistance and prevented foot rot and hoof problems. Copper in a chelated form would have an advantage over an inorganic form when Mo level is high, as it may escape the complexing (Nelson 1988). Ward et al. (1992) suggested that a mixture of Zn, Mn, Cu and Co in organic forms may stimulate feed intake and growth during the stress period. These chelated minerals can be of much use in areas of severe deficiency of trace minerals like tropical feeding systems, but the cost-benefit ratio needs to be established. Commercial preparations of several organo-mineral complexes are available, which could be used in areas of severe deficiency or to target groups. The minerals are better utilized in organic forms than inorganic forms. Even in case of inorganic salts the better bioavailable salts have to be selected. Biologically, most sulphates and chlorides are more readily available than oxides. Ferrous form is utilized better than ferric form. Orthophosphates are readily absorbed, whereas meta and pyrophosphates have limited absorption rate. Dicalcium phosphate is a better source of Ca and P than rock phosphate, which contains high levels of fluorine.
Mineral Supplementation
The most efficient method of providing supplemental minerals is through use of mineral supplements combined with concentrates, which assures an adequate intake of mineral elements by each animal as it consumes the nutrients. Indirect provision of minerals to grazing cattle includes use of mineral containing fertilizers, altering soil pH, and encouraging growth of specific pasture species. However, this approach may not be always feasible due to the complex soil-plant-animal interrelationship. Direct administration of minerals to livestock in drinking water, mineral licks and mineral mixtures are also quite effective in preventing mineral deficiencies. In acute deficiency, drenches, slow releasing mineral boluses and injectable preparations are useful in correcting the disorder. Nevertheless, the most practical approach is to supplement through feeds and fodders, which are rich sources of micronutrients.
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Supplementation of area-specific mineral mixture (ASMM)

Feeding of 'free - choice' mineral supplements could be the easiest way of supplementing minerals. Alternatively providing area - specific mineral mixture based on the deficiency of minerals in different agroclimatic zones is the most appropriate and cost effective method of mineral supplementation. The former approach could sometimes lead to deleterious effect, as some of the minerals may be available in excess than requirements affecting utilization of other minerals. For example, excess of calcium disturbing the Ca-P ratio, excess of selenium affecting sulphur utilization, excess of molybdenum and sulphur reduces copper absorption and excess of iron disturbing copper metabolism. More practical method is of supplementing only the most deficient minerals through area-specific mineral mixture by assessing the mineral content in soil, feeds and fodders and in animals in different agro-climatic zones. This approach has been found to improve the reproductive efficiency in crossbred cattle under field conditions, and this technology has been a success. In order to suggest such a supplementation it is necessary to assess the micronutrient status of soil, water, feed, fodder and biological materials from animals for different agro-climatic zones in the country. The NIANP, Bangalore has conducted a detailed survey on the micronutrient status in all the ten agro-climatic zones of Karnataka. The study has revealed that the major deficiency is of Ca, P, Cu & Zn. Various feeds and fodder varieties and unconventional feeds available in different areas have been screened for their mineral content and categorised as rich sources and moderate sources for strategic supplementation to overcome the deficiency. In general, straws and stovers are deficient in most of the minerals. Legume fodders are good sources of Ca, Cu, Zn and Fe and local grasses are rich in Zn and Fe. Top feeds / tree leaves are good sources of Ca and Fe. Amongst the concentrate feeds, oil cakes, brans and rice polish are good sources of phosphorus and moderate sources of Ca, Zn and Fe. Based on the micronutrient status in different agro-climatic zones of Karnataka, area-specific mineral salts have been developed by the Institute for improving animal production, productivity and profitability and field tested by a team of scientists. Under the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP), survey of all the agro-climatic zones in India has been conducted, and the most limiting minerals have been prioritised. Accordingly, ASMM have been formulated and field tested to improve reproduction and health of animals.
Conclusions
Trace minerals play a significant role in production and reproduction either singly or in combination. Overcoming the deficiency or imbalance of the trace minerals improves the productive efficiency of livestock to a great extent. Hence minerals are to be considered in the tropical feeding system not in isolation but as a part of the total nutrient management system. The emphasis should be on ways of mineral supplementation costeffectively based on prevailing livestock farming system and available resources. Strategic supplementation of area-specific mineral mixture would be a practical approach in overcoming problems of production and reproduction in dairy animals. Supplementing limiting micronutrients from locally available feed resources could be an alternate approach for overcoming micronutrient deficiency.
References
Corah, L. 1996. Trace mineral requirements of grazing cattle. Animal Feed Science and Technology 59 : 61-70. Garg, M. R., Bhanderi, B. M. and Sherasia, P. L. 1999. Mapping of certain minerals in feeds and fodders in the Mehsana district of Gujarat state. Indian Journal of Dairy Sciences 52: 69-77. Gowda, N. K. S. and Prasad, C. S. 2005. Macro and micro nutrient utilization and milk production in crossbred dairy cows fed finger millet and rice straw as dry roughage source. Asian -Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 18: 48-53.
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Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle Gowda, N. K. S., Prasad, C. S., Ashok, L. B. and Ramana, J. V. 2003. Utilization of dietary nutrients, retention and plasma level of minerals in crossbred dairy cows as influenced by source of mineral supplementation. Asian- Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 17: 221-27. Gowda, N. K. S., Ramana, J. V., Prasad, C. S. and Singh, K. 2004. Micronutrient content of certain tropical conventional and unconventional feed resources of southern India. Tropical Animal Health and Production 36 : 77-94. Haldar, S, Ghosh, T. K. and Pal, N. 2003. Effects of trace elements supplementation in commercially reared dairy cows of different lactation in relation to mineral metabolism. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 73: 437-43. Ibrahim, M. N. M., Zemmelink, G. and Tamminga, S. 1998. Release of mineral elements from tropical feeds during degradation in the rumen. Asian- Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 11: 530-37. Mc Dowell, L R. 1996. Feeding minerals to cattle on pasture. Animal Feed Science and Technology 69: 247 71. NRC. 2001. Nutrient requirements of dairy cattle, National Research Council, Washington,D.C. Selvaraju, S., Reddy, I.J., Gowda, N.K.S., Prasad, C.S., Ananthram, K and Sampath, K.T. 2009. Effect of supplementation of area specific mineral mixture in improving reproductive efficiency in crossbred dairy cattle: a field study. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences. 7: 599-601. Spears, J. W. 1996. Organic trace minerals in ruminant nutrition. Animal Feed Science and Technology 58: 151-63. Suttle, N. F. 2000. Minerals in livestock production Underwood memorial lecture. Asian -Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 13 (Supplement): 1-9. Yadav, P. S., Mandal, A. B. and Dahiya, D. V. 2002. Feeding pattern and mineral status of buffaloes in Panipat district of Haryana state. Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology 2: 127-38.
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7
Cultivation and Usage of Azolla as Supplemental Feed for Dairy Cattle
K. Giridhar and D. Rajendran National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Introduction
The rural population of India is more than 833 million, accounting for 69 per cent of total population. Over 70 million rural households own cattle and income from cattle constitute 20 per cent of their total earnings. In recent times, the share of agricultural residues that form the bulk of cattle feed is declining due to reasons like low straw to grain ratio of high-yielding varieties, use of the combined harvester that cause wastage of straw in the field and also, burning of residues. The nutritional quality of straw is also low. With shrinking grazing lands and expanding cities, marginal dairy farmers have to depend more and more on commercial cattle feed. Azolla, an aquatic free floating fern, holds promise as a nutritive supplemental feed. It is widely used as a bio-fertilizer in many rice-growing regions of the world. The blue-green algae (Anabaena azollae) that grow in symbiotic association Azolla is responsible for nitrogen fixation. Among different species of genus Azolla, pinnata is popular.
Nutritive value of Azolla

Azolla is rich in crude protein (over 20 %), essential amino acids like lysine (about 1 %) and minerals.The nutrient composition of azolla can vary due to the differences in strains, and also, the environmental conditions under which it is grown. Nutritive value of azolla is given in the Table.
DM% Green Azolla 5.3 CP% 19 ME (MJ) 9.2 NDF% 46.2 Fat% 4.8 Starch% 2.7 Sugar% 0.3 Ca % 1.4 P% 0.03 K% 1.68
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Environmental requirements
Azolla is found in ponds, ditches and wetlands of warm temperate and tropical regions throughout the world. It requires light for photosynthesis and grows well in the partial shade. Generally, azolla requires 25 to 50 per cent of full sunlight for its normal growth. Water is the basic requirement for the growth and multiplication of azolla. It is extremely sensitive to lack of water. Maintenance of adequate water level (at least 10 cm depth in 0 the pond) is essential. The species vary in their requirement of ideal temperature. In general, the optimum is 20C 0 0 to 30 C. Temperatures above 37 C will seriously affect the multiplication of azolla. The optimum relative humidity is 85 to 90 per cent. The optimum pH is 5.5 to 7. Too acidic or alkaline pH has an adverse effect on this fern. Azolla absorbs the nutrients from water. Though all elements are essential, phosphorus is the most common limiting element for its growth. Application of adequate water soluble phosphorus is essential for proper growth. About 20 ppm of phosphorus in the water is optimum. Micronutrient application improves the multiplication and growth. For cultivation of azolla, a shallow fresh water pond is ideal. Various steps in the production of azolla are given below.
Selection of location for the pond

Selection of an area near to the house is ideal to ensure regular up keep and monitoring of the pond. A suitable water source should be nearby for regular water supply. The site under partial shade is ideal or else, shade has to be created. It will minimize the evaporation of water and also, ensures better growth of azolla. The floor area of the pond should be free of pointed stones, roots and thorns that can damage the sheet leading to leakage of water.
Pond size and construction

The size of pond depends on factors like number of animals, quantity of supplemental feed required and availability of resources. For small holders, an area of 6 4 feet is sufficient to produce over 800 grams of supplemental feed (fresh azolla) per day throughout the year. If a farmer has two cows, it is better to go for a pond of 12 4 or 14 3 feet size to produce about two kg of azolla per day. Selected area should be cleaned and levelled. The side walls of the pond can be made with either bricks or the excavated soil. After spreading the durable plastic sheet (silpaulin, a polythene tarpaulin) in the pond, all the sides have to be secured properly by placing bricks over the side walls. The sheet should not have any holes or cracks to prevent the leakage of water. After the inoculation of culture, the pond needs to be covered with a net to provide partial shade and also, to prevent the fall of leaves and other debris into the pond. Thin wooden poles or bamboo sticks are to be placed over the pond walls to support the shade net.
Azolla production
Sieved fertile soil mixed with cow dung and water need to be spread uniformly in the pond. Around 800 grams of fresh azolla culture is needed for a pond of 6 4 feet size. It has to be applied uniformly in the pond. Biogas slurry can also be used instead of dung. The depth of water should be10 to 15 cm. The bottom of the pond needs to be even to ensure uniform depth of water in the entire pond area. During the monsoon season, if rain water can be harvested from the roof tops and used for cultivation of azolla, it will ensure excellent and faster growth of azolla. A few farmers used this practice in the project area (Chitradurga district in Karnataka) and got encouraging results. The merits of using rain water are its near neutral pH and the presence of nutrients like potassium, phosphorus, calcium, nitrogen, etc. If the water quality is poor (e.g., excess salt content or high pH), it will adversely affect the growth of azolla.
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Maintenance of the pond

Application of about one kg of cow dung and 80 to 100 grams of super phosphate once in 15 days will ensure better growth of azolla. The pond needs to be emptied once in six months. The cultivation needs to be restarted with fresh azolla culture and soil.
Harvesting and feeding of azolla

Depending on the initial quantity of culture added, environmental conditions and nutrition, azolla's growth in the pond will be complete in about 15 to 20 days time. It can be harvested daily after the full growth. Plastic sieves can be used to harvest the biomass from the pond's surface. If any litter is noticed in the pond, it should be removed. Around 800 grams of fresh azolla (mean yield per day in a season) can easily be produced from an area of 6 4 feet. In the event of overproduction of azolla, it can be dried in the shade and safely preserved for future use. Azolla can be fed to the livestock either in a fresh or dried form. It can be given directly or mixed with concentrates to cattle, poultry, sheep, goat, pigs and rabbits. It takes a few days for the animals to get used to the taste of azolla. So, it is better to feed it along with the concentrates in the initial stages. Azolla has to be washed thoroughly with fresh water to remove the smell of dung. If it is not going to be utilized immediately, Azolla has to be dried in shade for complete removal of moisture and stored in a dry place like plastic bins for later use.
Economics
The expenditure on preparing a 6 4 feet pond is minimal at Rs.500 (sheet plus labour cost). In the studies with over 100 dairy farmers done at various villages of Chitradurga district of Karnataka under NAIP livelihood project, feeding of azolla @ 800 grams (fresh weight) on an average per day, improved the monthly milk yield by at least 10 liters per cow. A farmer can realize a profit of over Rs. 2000 per annum by maintaining an azolla pond of 6 4 feet size.
Merits
Azolla cultivation can be easily practiced in minimum area by the dairy farmers. It is very economical to produce. Azolla improves the monthly milk yield by 10 liters per animal in the low yielders. It is a nutritive feed supplement for the livestock. The cost of milk production can be reduced by replacing a part of concentrate requirement with azolla.
Limitations
As the dry matter content is only about 6 per cent, it is difficult to rely solely on azolla as the feed resource. Environmental constraints like very high temperatures, low humidity, limited water availability and poor quality of water can restrict the adoption of azolla production.
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8
Urea-Ammoniation of Crop Residues for Improving Nutritive Value of Feed
P. K. Malik, N. M. Soren, A. Thualsi, D. Rajendran, M. Bagath, S. Jash and L. Jose National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore
Forage treatment consists of technological treatments aimed at rendering the parietal constituents of low quality forages more accessible to the digestive enzymes of the rumen's microorganisms so as to improve both their digestibility and intake. There are three broad categories of treatment: physical, biological and chemical. The two chemical treatments most commonly put to practical use consist of treating the forages with either ammonia or urea.
Chemical treatment
This category of treatment techniques attracted the most attention both from a research and development point of view. These treatments are, in fact, very efficient and indeed some of them emphasized below extremely easy to put into practice. These treatments call upon one or other of the following chemical agents: 1. Oxidizing agents (peroxyacetic acid, acidified sodium chloride, ozone, etc.) which decompose fairly efficiently the lignin 2. Strong acids such as those used in the paper industry 3. Alkali based agents (lime, potassium, caustic soda either alone or in association and, more recently, ammonia), which are able to hydrolyse the chemical bonds formed between the indigestible lignin and the parietal polysaccharides (cellulose; hemicellulose).
Figure 1. Manner in which various chemicals act on lignin-hemicellulose complex
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The combined effect of these reactions is to cause a significant reduction in the rigidity of the cell structures and a swelling of the cell walls, so allowing their penetration by the electrolytes and cellulolytic enzymes from the rumen microbes. These microbes can thus colonize more rapidly on the vegetal matter, decomposing it more quickly and intensively because hydrolysis has already taken place. Oxidizing agents are prohibitively expensive and have not been used in practice. Alkalis have been the most frequently used agents, and caustic soda has been practically used of the technique.
Ammonia treatment
Due to the cost and potential dangers involved with caustic soda treatment, these techniques have almost entirely abandoned in favour of treatment with ammonia way back in 1978. Interesting research results from the use of caustic soda for improvement of the nutritive value of straw encouraged many research workers to study other products. First studies concerning the ammonia date back to Germany 60 years ago. They were followed up later, principally in Scandinavia, and also in Central Europe and the then USSR, success being variable but the effects generally less marked than when using caustic soda. It was not until 1974-75 that a treatment technique for stacks was launched by livestock farmers from Norway, who injected the straw with anhydrous ammonia at an ambient temperature. Ammonia (NH) 3 is a byproduct from industrial cracking of hydrocarbons. It is used as a raw material in the fertilizer industry and also applied directly as a fertilizer. It is a gas at the normal atmospheric pressure. It is easy to liquefy and readily dissolves in water. It has a vapour pressure of 8.5 bars at 20 and a boiling point of 33.4C at normal atmospheric pressure. It is usually available at a very high degree of purity (99.8%). Due to the volatility of ammonia at normal room temperature and pressure, treatment with anhydrous ammonia presupposes that the forages will be treated within hermetically sealed enclosures. Hydrous ammonia (NHOH) is a solution of ammonia whereby the actual concentration at the normal 4 atmospheric pressure depends upon ambient temperature: it ranges from 400 to 185 g/kg as the temperature rises from 10 to 50C. Solutions normally available on the market are sold in plastic containers and have a concentration of 250 g of ammonia per kg. This base is weaker than caustic soda and is thus somewhat less efficient for the alkaline hydrolysis of the forage parietal carbohydrates; it does, however, have the advantage of improving their nitrogen content.
Deciding factors in ammonia treatment

Success factors mainly involved in the success of ammonia treatment are the amount of ammonia used for treatment, temperature, duration of the treatment and the humidity under which treatment takes place. Nature of forage to be treated is also in deciding the success of treatment and of course interaction of all these factors.
Amount of ammonia
This is the most important parameter. A series of studies undertaken on this subject have shown that ammonia supplied in application rates, which exceed 4.0 and up to 5.5 and 7.0 kg per 100 kg of straw, have only a marginally beneficial effect. The consensus of work done by various workers is that application rates, which exceed 4 % (of the treated straw DM content) cannot be justified, and even less so when the other parameters fail to be duly considered. The optimum economic application rate for ammonia (either anhydrous or aqueous)
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certainly lies in the range of 2.5 to 3.5 kg per 100 kg DM of treated straw (in other words, between 2.1 and 3.0 kg per 100 kg of straw with an 85 % DM content). Application rates less than 2.5% on a dry matter basis (in other words, 2.1 % of straw having an 85 % DM content) are insufficient and will not produce expected results.
Temperature and length of treatment

It is difficult to dissociate these two parameters as the speed of the alkaline chemical reaction upon the straw, as in the case of many chemical reactions, is moderated in accordance with the temperature at which it takes place. The rapid rise in temperature during treatment due to heat released from the chemical reaction is insufficient to ensure optimum conditions for treating the stacks (without additional heat being applied). What happens, in fact, is that the temperature of the straw mass approaches ambient temperature after several days (a little later if liquid ammonia is injected as this first cause a drop in temperature due to evaporation). It follows that ambient temperature will have the most significant effect on treatment efficiency. It should also be understood that ammonia is a weaker base source than caustic soda and reacts more slowly. It is essential to observe a treatment period determined according to ambient temperature, a longer period at low temperatures and vice versa at higher temperatures. Certain limits must, however, be observed: below an ambient temperature of 17C, treatment should extend beyond four weeks. Treatment only takes a matter of hours at a temperature of between 90 and 100C. In contrast in temperate regions and high tropical regions where seasonal frosts can occur at night, it is most important to allow adequate treatment time, for which overall efficiency will continue to improve up to eight weeks later. For intermediate ambient temperatures between 5 and 15 C, one should adopt similarly intermediate treatment times of between 4 and eight weeks.
Figure 2. Influence of the ammonia dosage rate, the ambient temperature on barley in vitro organic matter digestibility (%)
Practical recommendations for time needed for adequate ammonia treatment

Ambient Temperature < 5C 515C 1530C >30C Treatment Time Required >8 weeks 4 to 8 weeks 1 to 4 weeks <1 week
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Humidity
The important factor influencing ammonia treatment efficiency concerns the moisture content within the forage mass (and hence the dry matter content of the straw if this is to be treated with anhydrous + ammonia). In essence, the treatment depends upon the NH 4 ion (NH 3 being inert) which is only liberated if NH 3 is available in the presence of water. Unfortunately, this parameter is frequently underestimated in regions where straw and other treated crop residues are very dry (such as in the Mediterranean regions, arid zones and very dry temperate zones). Work on this subject is less well documented than that concerning other factors and indeed studies concerning straw moisture contents below 15 % have so far been neglected. Available studies show that the increase of humidity within the treatment environment gives a positive response on treatment efficiency both in terms of an increase to the IVD and in the overall nitrogen content. This relationship is shown to be nearly linear even for low temperatures and for lengthy treatment times. One may generally assume that the optimum moisture content range for successful treatment lies between 15 and 25 %. Even if higher moisture contents can further improve the treatment efficiency, other difficulties appears, which risk reducing any beneficial effects (such as storage problems related to the possibility of mould development). In practice, it is vital to dampen straw which has DM content higher than 90 % if one does not want to run the risk of treating for nothing. Dampening the straw can be achieved by spraying water on the bales, one by one, as the stack is made although this involves some hand labour. Another possibility consists in treating with aqueous ammonia (NHOH) if this is 4 available locally (respecting the amount of alkali to incorporate). In the authors' opinion, it is preferable to dampen the straw rather than to adopt this latter technique which, although very simple, is rather hazardous and with which technical personnel are usually less familiar.
Nature of the forage

The ability of particular forage to respond to alkaline treatment will depend upon its botanic family, its species and its variety. Without entering into further details, this ability is related to the nature of the bonds between the phenolic acids and the lignin (ethers or esters, the former being more sensitive to the alkalis and the latter, less so). For these reasons, legumes are generally less sensitive to alkaline attack and treating leguminous stalks responds much less than when grasses are treated. There are also differences in treatment response between the grasses varieties. This broad variation in the aptitude of different straws to respond to the alkalis (and also in nutritive values) leads also to evidence that there is no single, universally applicable application rate, rather a range determined according to their botanic make up. This is certainly the partial reason why trials concerning the straw response to various alkali application rates have been so numerous and their results so diverse. The application of ammonia treatment techniques for forages still remains limited in tropical countries for the main reasons which are as follows:

Anhydrous ammonia is rarely available locally and importation only for treatment is difficult to conceive, This treatment technique requires costly equipment (special storage containers, transport means and plastic sheeting) and an infrastructure of rural roads to the farms which is often lacking, The treatment requires a certain level of skill which the farmer is unlikely to have acquired. Thus, relying upon assistance of an extension agent, the farmer will not have full independence when using the treatment, And finally, the treatment is not without hazards: handling anhydrous ammonia, a toxic gas, is a delicate procedure requiring equipment in perfect state of repair.
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However, this same ammonia can alternatively be generated from urea without any risk, this being commercially available as a fertilizer. This source of ammonia has distinct advantages over the latter being universally available, easy to transport, store and handle and also being less costly.
Urea treatment Basic principle

Treating, using urea as the source for generating ammonia, is a technique which can be easily mastered by farmers. This consists of spraying a solution of urea onto the dry mass of forage and covering with materials available locally so as to form a hermetic seal. In the presence of water and the enzyme known as urease, and if the ambient temperature is sufficiently warm, the urea hydrolyses into gaseous ammonia and carbonic gas through reaction with the enzyme which may be described in a simplified manner as follows: Heat CO (NH) 2 + 2 HO 2 ----------------------> 2 NH +3CO Urease, water Once hydrolysis is completed: one molecule of urea (i.e. 60 g) generates two molecules of ammonia (i.e. 34 g). 5 kg of urea thus allows production of 2.83 kg of ammonia The ammonia thus generated provokes the (alkaline) reaction which gradually spreads and treats the mass of forage. It acts in just the same way on the vegetal matter as if anhydrous ammonia is used:

2
dissolving the parietal carbohydrates (mainly the hemicelluloses), swelling the vegetal matter in an aqueous environment, so easing access by the rumen's cellulolytic microorganisms, reducing the physical strength of the cells, so easing mastication by the animal and digestion by the microbes, enriching the forage in nitrogen, as is also the case if anhydrous ammonia is used. net effects on the forage are increased to its digestibility (by 8 to 12 points), to its nitrogen content (which will be more than doubled), to the intake (by 25 to 50 %), and thus to the nutritive value.
Key success factors for urea treatment

Treating with urea is based upon its transformation into ammonia. In order for the treatment to succeed, most of the urea must first be hydrolysed into ammonia, and then this must diffuse correctly so fixing itself to the forage and modifying it chemically. One must therefore ensure favourable conditions for both good ureolysis and good ammonia treatment, in the knowledge that these two processes take place simultaneously within the forage matter. Practical conditions affecting successful treatment include the presence of urease, the application rate of urea (this determining the amount of ammonia, which will be made available for treating the forage), moisture content, ambient temperature and the length of the treatment period, the degree of hermetic sealing achieved during the treatment and finally, the quality of the forage to be treated. These factors are interdependent, and it is difficult to dissociate one from the other.
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Urease
Hydrolysis of urea is an enzyme reaction which can only take place if urease is present, an enzyme which slices the urea molecule. This reaction is very complex. Urease is produced by ureolytic bacteria. These are present in the soil and also, in urine and faeces from both humans and animals (urease is present in the rumen). Urease is rarely lacking in rural areas (this is also known as telluric urease) and this source helps to counterbalance its occasionally weak presence in straw. Treatment conditions should thus favour the development of ureolytic bacteria within the forage being treated: moisture, temperature, treatment duration, at the same time deterring any microorganisms, which might cause mould or decomposition.
Urea application rates

It is now well established that optimum application rates lie between 4 and six kg of urea per 100 kg of straw matter, which corresponds to treating by ammonia in the range of 2.4 to 3.4 kg 3 NH per 100 kg of straw (for example: straw with a DM content of 90 % would require an application rate of ammonia falling between 2.7 and 3.8 kg per 100 kg of straw DM).
Amount of water
Hydrolysis of the urea can only occur if water is present. The amount of water to be added to the forage is thus a determining factor for the success of the treatment. Urea hydrolysis works better the more water is available. There are, however, practical limitations to the amount of water because the reaction takes place in a complex environment within which the urea solution is incorporated. The final moisture content of treated forage must never be less than 30 % (or in other words, final dry matter content of the treated forage must never be more than 70 %). The moisture helps compaction of the forage which helps to drive out the air, thus increasing the concentration of ammonia as long as the treatment enclosure is well sealed. The final moisture content should never be greater than 50 %. Ideally, it should lie in the range of 30 to 50 %.
Temperature and the treatment duration

The ideal ambient temperature for ureolysis is between 30 and 40C (30C is also the reference temperature for titrating urea through action by urease in the laboratory). For temperatures above 25 or 30C ureolysis is accomplished in the heterogeneous environment after a few days or even less if moisture content is not a limiting factor. It follows that for ambient temperatures from 30 to 40C, maximum treatment efficiency is achieved after a week. Studies in India have shown that for rice straw treated with 4 to 5 kg of urea and 60 litres of water per 100 kg of straw, similar treatment efficiency was observed for treatment times of 8, 5 and even 4 days. At lower ambient temperatures activity of the ureolytic bacteria is slowed down as is the ureolysis. A treatment time of three weeks is generally found acceptable as one finds only slight traces of residual urea and acceptable rise in digestibility.
Hermetic sealing
The last factor in successful treatment concerns the degree of hermetic sealing of the treatment environment, both from the point of view of avoiding losses of the urea solution introduced or of the ammonia generated and also to ensure an anaerobic environment (serving as a guarantee against the development of mould within the damp treated forage mass). In effect, the ammonia which is lighter than air, diffuses
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throughout the forage and has a tendency to escape if the forage is not sufficiently compacted and the forage heap not sufficiently air tight. The pressure generated progressively by the ammonia from the urea is, however, much lower than when treatment is undertaken by injecting anhydrous ammonia gas.
Use of urine for treating straw

Urine can be used as a source of urea. In effect, although it consists of 90 to 95 % water, urea is the most important of the solid constituents and makes up more than 70 % of the nitrogen content in the urine. However, the make-up of urine tends to be very variable. Its composition depends upon the amount of water ingested; the amount and quality of the proteins ingested and upon the concentration of energy in the ration (which affects the efficiency of utilization of the proteins). It also depends upon the animal species and their general physiological condition. For domestic mammals, the urea content of urine ranges from 2 to 25 g/litre. First trials concerning the use of urine as a urea source for straw treatment were carried out in South East Asia in the early 1980's. Application was made at a straw/urine rate (by weight) of between 1:1 and 1:3. This means that the straw moisture content is sometimes raised quite high. Measurements made either on the animal or in the laboratory concerning improvement to the forage digestibility gave variable results, although they could reach levels similar to those obtained by classic urea treatment methods. Despite this, the amount of urea given through such treatments is less than that with the classic technique. It seems that moisture content plays a favourable role in the treatment efficiency but acceptability of the treated material is not always improved. Finally, one of the reasons why this treatment method has not really been developed stems from the purely practical difficulties involved in collection and storage of the urine.
Conclusion
It is clear that urea treatment constitutes a simple and efficient technique which is not onerous. It is flexible and can be adapted to various situations, each quite different to the other. Essentially, one should consider all the various factors, which might influence success and, which have been detailed above, comparing them with any constraints, which may have to be overcome. The only major constraint may lie within the cropping calendar and concern other agricultural tasks; one should always try, wherever feasible, to carry out treatment during periods of slack labour requirements. Urea treatment should not pose difficulties as long as the extension agents have been well-trained and have fully understood the fundamental principles which should be considered when looking for practical solutions adapted to local conditions. It constitutes a technique which may be used with equal success at artisanal scale for small farmer communities, as on a larger scale by cooperatives or large farms situated in countries where supplies of industrial ammonia do not exist.
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9
Dairy Farmers' Multi-nutrient Wand: Urea Molasses Block licks
Soumitra Jash, S. Anandan, S.B.N. Rao, A. Thulasi, M. Bagath, D. Rajendran, P.K. Malik and N.M. Soren National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore
Genesis
Of the myriad Nobel laureates, Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (18951973), a Finnish chemist, shines as the maiden recipient of the 1945 coveted prize in Chemistry, "for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry". He pioneered development of partially synthetic cattle feeds. The nitrogen for the synthesis of amino acids normally comes from proteins in the fodder. A special bacterial environment in the rumen of cattle allows the use of urea and ammonium salts as the source for the nitrogen instead of plant proteins like soybean or meat and bone meal. Though, the first systematic trial on the use of blocks appears was conducted in South Africa in 1960, the use of blocks has been recorded from as early as the 1930s. During initial periods, the blocks included only urea and salts. Later, molasses and minerals were augmented. Until the 1970s, the blocks were produced mostly by feed manufacturing companies, were expensive, and their use in developing countries was negligible. In the early 1980s, with the realization of the significance of the blocks for smallholders in developing countries, work on simplification of the block production technology gained momentum through the efforts of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division, Professor Leng from Armidale University, Australia, and the National Dairy Development Board, Gujarat, India. The Joint FAO/IAEA Division, FAO and UNDP promoted block technology in many Asian, African and Latin American countries. During the initial phase, up to the mid-1980s, the hot process of block production was promoted, despite the high cost of the heating process. In 1986, the FAO Feed Resources Group modified the process to one that did not require heating of the ingredients, and this became known as the cold process. The cold process used solidifying agents such as calcium and magnesium oxide, calcium hydroxide, diammonium phosphate, cement or bentonite. Although the cold process was available, the use of the hot process continued into the mid-1990s in
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India. However, use of the hot process could not be sustained because of increasing energy costs, and interest in block technology diminished. In the late 1990s, with the promotion of the cold process through FAO/IAEA Regional Technical Cooperation (TC) Projects technology picked up in many Asian and African countries.
Scenario
The major feed resources for large ruminants in developing countries tend to be low in nitrogen and of low digestibility. In South Asia, for example, crop residues are the staple feed all year round, supplemented to a varying degree by grazing and/or harvested grasses, weeds and tree foliage. In Africa, grazing, usually on communal lands, is the dominant feeding system and nutritive value is not a constraint when there is rain, but during the extended dry season the mature tropical grasses (standing hay) resemble crop residues in their chemical composition and nutritive value. The principles underlying the efficient use of fibrous crop residues and standing hays by large ruminants are now well understood. The first constraint to their better utilization is the imbalance in the nutrients made available from the rumen fermentative digestion and not their low digestibility per se. The efficiency with which these feed are utilized can be markedly increased by a feeding strategy aimed to create an efficient ecosystem for fermentative digestion of fibre in the rumen; and balance the products of the fermentative digestion with bypass (or escape) nutrients of dietary origin in order to optimize the use of the available energy for productive purposes.
Urea-molasses multi-nutrient (UMMB) blocks

These are lick blocks containing urea, molasses, vitamins, minerals and other multi-nutrients. The feeding of the blocks is a convenient and inexpensive method of providing a range of nutrients required by both the rumen microbes and the animal, which may be deficient in the diet. The main justification for using the blocks depends on their convenience for packaging, storage, transport and ease of feeding. The ingredients are designed to provide a wide range of nutrients to cover all potential deficiencies. In the wet tropical regions, minerals are often deficient in cut and carry grass or crop residue feeding systems. Grass from road sides or wastelands are particularly low in minerals as generally, no fertilizer is used and the grasses have often been cut for decades for ruminant production, thus depleting the reserves of both soils and plants.
Composition
A standard UMMB consists of molasses (30-50 %), urea (5-10 %), a cereal bran such as rice, wheat or maize bran (15-25 %), an oil seed meal such as soybean meal, coconut meal or groundnut meal (10-20), salt (5-7 %), lime or cement (5-10 %), bone meal (5-7 %) and minerals (1-2 %). The molasses being a concentrated plant juice, will provide a range of trace minerals and a complete mixture of vitamins. Cereal brans are high in phosphorus, trace minerals and also a range of vitamins. In addition, they provide a slow-release amino acid source from the relatively insoluble proteins to the microbes. Oilseed meals are a good source of phosphorus and soluble and insoluble proteins. Bone meal, salt and lime or cement will provide much of the macro mineral requirement. Urea provides the small amount of extra nitrogen required, for utilization of the dry matter, in addition to that present in the forage. The multi-nutrient block, therefore, provides the nutrient requirements of both the microbes and the host animal.
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The reasons for molasses - urea

Molasses is a major by-product of the sugarcane industry. It is a well-known source of energy and a widely available concentrated form of `fermentable carbohydrate' that has no role in human nutrition. Urea is a product, which after hydrolysis into ammonia in the rumen can be used as a nitrogen source by the microbes. Therefore, a supplement containing these two can stimulate the development of microbes in the rumen, permitting a better digestion of the forages and a greater production of microbial protein, which could provide essential nutrients in the intestine. For these reasons, liquid supplements containing molasses and urea have been used in many countries such as Australia, India and those of Southern Africa, for drought feeding and for intensive cattle fattening.
Blocks
Supplementation systems based on liquid molasses have been used on ranches, but they are difficult to use under extensive nomadic livestock systems or by smallholder farmers. The main reasons are the necessity to have a minimum of infrastructure to transport and distribute the liquid mixture (tanks for transport and storage, feed troughs, etc.) and the difficulty to manipulate this by-product, which is a very viscous and sticky liquid. Therefore, in many countries where there is a surplus of molasses it is either underutilized and or exported even when there are problems in animal feeding during the dry season. The main justification for using blocks, to provide deficient nutrients is, therefore, their convenience for packaging, storage, transport and ease of feeding.
Basic feed ingredients of the blocks and their nutrients

Many ingredients can be used for making urea-molasses blocks. The choice will depend on their availability, nutritive value, price, easy of handling and the effect on quality of block. Some of the ingredients that may be used are: molasses, urea, bran (rice, wheat or maize), oilseed meals and cakes (soybean, coconut, groundnut, cottonseed, olive), agro-industrial by-products and miscellaneous non-conventional feeds (sugar beet pulp, citrus pulp, tomato pulp, cassava waste, milled groundnut shells, brewers grain, bagasse, poultry manure and waste, slaughter house offals), cement or lime, salt and or minerals. The molasses, being a concentrated plant juice, will provide a range of minerals (except phosphorus) and a complete mixture of vitamins. Because of both its taste and smell, molasses makes blocks appetising for animals. Urea provides the small amount of extra nitrogen required for utilization of the dry matter in addition to that present in normal dry season forage. It must be sufficient to maintain the ammonia level in the rumen, at a constant and sufficient amount for better development of the micro-organisms, leading to better degradation of the cellulosic components. Cereal brans (rice, maize or wheat bran) are high in phosphorus, trace minerals and also a range of vitamins. They absorb moisture from the molasses and gives structure to the block. Bran can be replaced by other sources of fibre such as bagasse or finely milled groundnut hulls. Oilseed meals provide both soluble and insoluble proteins and are a good source of phosphorous. It is appropriate to add such ingredients when blocks are given to animals in production.
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Cement or quicklime is used as a binding agent. Although the use of cement has raised questions about possible harmful effects, studies in USA, USSR and Canada have shown no negative effects, over long periods of time, when it constitutes up to 1 % of the total daily intake of dry matter. Mineral requirements for animals in maintenance or survival conditions are low. Generally speaking, mineral deficiencies appear only when production is high. Bone meal and salt will provide much of the macro mineral requirement (sodium, potassium, calcium and phosphorus) of the microbes as well as those of the host animal. Minerals are often expensive on the local market, and their quality is generally not controlled. Therefore, it may not be appropriate to add minerals, unless they are absolutely necessary. Molasses is rich in most minerals but unfortunately not in phosphorous. The multi-nutrient block, therefore, provides the nutrient requirements of both the microbes and the host animal. Many other chemical agents (e.g. veterinary drugs for treatment of parasites or chemical agents for modifying the rumen ecosystem), can be added to the block, which is an excellent carrier for such products.
The characteristics of the block components Molasses

The consistency of the molasses appears to play a major role in the successful manufacture of ureamolasses blocks. This depends on the quantity of sugar in the molasses. This sugar quantity, expressed as a percentage of the total weight in the molasses is called the BRIX value. To ensure a good hardening of the mixture the molasses should have a BRIX value of 80 or more. The molasses coming from a sugar factory normally attains this degree of BRIX and can even reach 90. It should NOT be diluted with water in order to make it easier to handle as this leads to difficulties during the process of solidifying blocks. The BRIX value can be easily checked with a small pocket refractometer.
Salt
The salt in the mixture is ordinary salt (NaCl) or mineral salts, depending on their availability and price. Even though the salt is not toxic it is better to prevent lumps in the mixture.
Cement or quicklime
Cement or quicklime serves as binding or gelling agents. Cement for this mixture is ordinary cement, used in normal construction activities and available on the local market. To obtain a good setting, cement needs a minimum quantity of water. The water present in the molasses does not blend satisfactorily with the cement. Therefore, prior to the introduction of the mixture, in order to improve the setting of the blocks, the cement should be mixed with water at the rate of 3-4 litres of water for each 10 kg of cement (30 to 40 % water on a weight for weight basis). Furthermore, it has become evident that salt is an agent which can improve the setting of the cement, and thus it can be mixed with the water and cement. The quality of cement is very important. One should never use cement, which has hardened while in stock. Quicklime gives better results, in relation to setting time (hardens quicker) and hardness of the blocks, but its price and availability may restrict its use in certain countries. Before using it in the mixture it should be finely ground. In order to be sure that the quicklime is still in its active form, place some lime in a tin (just enough to cover the bottom) and pour the same quantity of water on to it. If the lime is still active heat will be generated (in regions where atmospheric humidity is high, it may be difficult to preserve quicklime).
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Bran
In this formula the bran serves, apart from its nutritive value, as an absorbent and to give structure to the blocks. All kinds of bran can be used. If there is no bran available, or if it can be used more economically elsewhere, it can be replaced by other fibre sources such as ground straw, bagasse or peanut hulls.
Other components
The basic formula contains only components, which are essential to the objective of the blocks: improvement of the utilization of roughages. If a nutritive deficiency is proven, which leads to economic loss, it is possible to include elements in the mixture to cure this deficiency (for instance, minerals). Furthermore, it is possible to incorporate in the blocks different products such as anthelmintics and other agents that enhance the rumen microbial ecosystem. The formulae can be changed according to results and specific needs in a given situation. If, for example, the blocks are too hard a reduction in the amount of gelling agent and an appropriate increase of molasses can change the consistency of the block. The opposite is done if the blocks are not hard enough. The percentage of the absorbent (e.g. wheat, rice bran or bagasse) can also be changed. It is essential to bear in mind that any changes in the formula can lead to modifications in the solidification process and the hardness of the blocks.
Manufacture of the blocks

The manufacture of blocks must commence well in advance of their proposed use. If they are to be used as a supplement during the dry season, when the quality of forage is very low, their production should start before this period in order to have sufficient numbers of blocks available when required. However, in view of the hygroscopic nature of the components, as well as of the blocks, it is better not to start production before the onset of the dry season. Manufacturing can be divided into five stages: 1. Preparation of feed ingredients 2. Mixing 3. Moulding 4. Turning or cutting out (optional, based on the method adopted) 5. Drying Urea-molasses blocks may be manufactured either on a small or on a larger scale depending on the number of uses and the expected length of the feeding period. Whatever scale of production is applicable the method of manufacture will be the same; the difference being the quantities of feed ingredients and the implements used in the manufacturing process.
Utilization of urea-molasses blocks

Some important guidelines towards the optimum utilization of urea-molasses multi-nutrient blocks as supplements for forage based diet are described below. Urea molasses blocks should not be fed alone but only
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as a supplement. They require a minimum amount of roughage to ensure that the animals are not over fed and thereby avoid urea poisoning.
Species of livestock
Because the blocks contain urea they must only be fed to ruminants (buffalo, cattle, goats and sheep) and never to monogastric species (chicken, donkeys, horses, pigs, rabbits) or to young, especially pre-ruminant calves, kid goats and lambs.
Feeding period
The aim of the block is to improve the utilization of low quality roughages, especially during and at the end of the dry season, when livestock are often dependent on crop residues or low quality dry season grazing, which are both low in crude protein and high in fibre. Therefore, the production and distribution of blocks should be limited to these critical periods. There is no advantage in offering blocks when green forage is available, as during the wet and early dry seasons. To avoid wasting resources they should not be made available at these times.
Minimum roughage requirements

Urea-molasses blocks are only supplements. Therefore, they should not be fed alone. A minimum quantity of roughage is needed to ensure that the animals do not consume too much urea, possibly leading to urea poisoning. One should remember that the purpose of the block is to improve the utilization of roughage and not to substitute it.
Adaptation of animals
The full daily ration of the block (e.g. 700 g/day per adult cow) should not be offered as soon as the feeding period starts but should be built up to over a period of at least 7-10 days. This is particularly important when animals have suffered a degree of underfeeding as intake can be more rapid than usual. Animals not used to urea and also eating rapidly are the most likely to suffer from urea poisoning. After the adaptation period, animals will adjust their intakes to around those recommended earlier (cattle, ca 700 g/day: small ruminants, ca 100 g/day). An easy way to restrict intake during the adaptation period is to limit the amount of time the blocks are accessible to an animal. A rule of thumb would be to offer them for one hour per day (or about 200 g for cattle and 30 g for small ruminants) during the first 3-4 days, followed by three hours per day (or about 400 g for cattle and 60 g for small ruminants) during the next 4-6 days. Thereafter, blocks can be offered ad libitum.
Feeding system
The distribution of the blocks should be done according to the livestock management system. If animals are on pasture or rangeland during the day, blocks can be offered in the evening when they return to the homestead. When they are tethered, and feed brought to them, blocks can be offered continuously.
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Establishing priorities
If a farmer has a limited number of blocks available, he must also establish an order of priority for feeding his animals. Priority should be given to gestating or lactating cows and draught animals.
Provision of additional supplements for production

As specified above, blocks are used for improving the digestion of low quality forages and thus fulfill the requirements for maintenance and low levels of production. For high producing animals, it is necessary to provide other supplements such as: a) good-quality forages (young grass and especially legumes) b) rumen non-degradable (`by-pass') nutrients (cottonseed cake, groundnut cake, fish meal) Providing blocks and supplement together will increase the benefits from each separately.
Conclusions
The strategic use of multi-nutrient blocks containing fermentable nitrogen and other microbial growth factors, and feed supplements rich in by-pass protein, lipids and starch, has great application in many developing countries where crop production is the major agricultural activity, or where pastoral economies are subject to prolonged dry seasons. The effects of this two-pronged approach are synergistic, with positive responses being elicited in the rate of rumen digestion, feed intake and on the balance of nutrients made available for metabolism. Future research may reveal opportunities for using supplements as vehicles for other interventions, such as control of rumen fermentative digestion and of internal parasites. The technology is especially suited to the introduction of improved nutritional practices on smallholder farms, which are not easily accessible to conventional extension services.
Further Readings
A.I. Virtanen. 1963. Production of cow's milk without proteins, using urea-and ammonium-nitrogen as the sources of nitrogen, and purified carbohydrates as the sources of energy H.P.S. Makkar, M. Snchez and A W. Speedy. 2007. Feed supplementation blocks: Urea-molasses multinutrient blocks: simple and effective feed supplement technology for ruminant agriculture H.P.S. Makkar. 2001. Frequently asked questions on Urea-Molasses-Multinutrient Block Technology (UMMB)
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10
Feeding of Total Mixed Ration and Complete Feed Block for High Yielding Dairy Animals
S. Senani, A. K. Samanta and Atul P. Kolte National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore
For health and optimal milk production from livestock, providing proper nutrition to dairy animals is very important. Dairy rations must contain good-quality forages and concentrate mix to provide, energy, protein, minerals and vitamins. Feeds must be fed in the right amount and combination to provide a balance of nutrients avoiding excesses or deficiencies. One of the principal limiting factors affecting ruminant productivity is the shortage of feeds because of alternative use of feedstuffs for energy production and human use. There has been a short supply of green forage, roughage and concentrate to varying degree. This leads to increasing pressure on rangelands, wastelands and grazing lands; therefore to a rapid deterioration of plant cover in many areas. Majorities of the countries in tropics are facing the gap between the feed supply and nutrient requirements of livestock. The high cost of conventional concentrate feeds (barley grain, bran, oil cakes, etc.) prohibits their wide-scale use, especially by small farmers. Therefore, it is necessary to seek alternative supplements to improve the nutrition and thus the productivity of livestock. The situation demands better and judicious utilization of available resource, minimize wastage of resources for maximum production.
What is a total mixed ration (TMR)?

A TMR or total mixed ration is a method of feeding cows that combines forages, grains, protein feeds, minerals, vitamins and feed additives into a single feed mix. The TMR or complete ration mix is then offered adlib.
Why feed a TMR?

With a TMR, a cow eats a balanced ration in every bite or mouthful it consumes. Cows eat a predetermined amount of forages and concentrates necessary for good production and health. Advantages of TMR feeding:
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Selective consumption of feeds by cows is minimized. The risk of digestive upsets is reduced; rumen pH stabilized and rumen digestion of feed optimized as cows have to consume the mix of feeds and nutrients in the TMR rather than selective consumption of individual feed ingredients. Providing a uniform supply of protein and carbohydrates to the rumen bacteria throughout the day maximizes rumen fermentation and the production of rumen bacteria. Consuming a mix of feeds and nutrients with every bite will optimize milk production and keep cows healthy. TMR mixers can reduce the work of feeding cows and save labor costs. A TMR provides more control and accuracy of the feed amounts fed than when feeds are fed as separate ingredients. Feeding a TMR correctly balanced to nutrient specifications can increase milk production 1 to 2.5 kg per cow per day. Milk fat and other components can increase because of the better rumen fermentation and balance of nutrients being consumed. Small amounts of low quality forages or unpalatable feed ingredients can be successfully fed and better utilized by the cow when fed in a TMR rather than when fed as individual separate feeds. With the use of TMR mixers, the daily feed intake of cows is easier to measure. By knowing daily feed or dry matter intakes, the correct amounts of feed and nutrients can be fed minimizing wastage and reducing the cost of feeding.
Disadvantages of feeding a TMR

With a TMR, all cows in the group get the same ration. Individual cow feeding is not possible. To correctly feed a TMR, a mixer is required. Feed mixers with weighing equipment are expensive. Dry forages such as hay or straw are not mixed very well in some TMR mixers. Additional equipment is needed to chop the hay or straw before being added to the mixer. Dairy farms need to group cows to effectively utilize TMR feeding. Cows are fed as a group and cows in the group should be as uniform in milk production and body weight as possible. Large variations in milk productions (over 10 kg/day) or body weights (over 100 kg) of cows in a group can result in some cows being over or under fed increasing feed costs and/or loss of milk production. A minimum of three lactating cow groups is recommended for cost effective TMR feeding.
Grouping guidelines for TMR feeding

Dairy herds feeding a TMR could be divided into few production groups and dry cow groups. And when the animal performance improves or falls short of the group average the animal should be shifted to another appropriate group such as, pre fresh or close to dry, fresh cow, high producing, first lactation, mid lactation, late lactation and peak yielding and far off-dry cows (200 days pregnant) etc.
Formulating TMR rations for groups

The dry matter (DM) intake used to formulate the ration to the desired nutrient concentrations should be the actual DM intake of the group. A lactating cow ration should be designed for milk production about 20%
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above the average production of the group. For example, if the group averages 26 kg of milk production per day, the ration should be formulated for 31 kg of milk per day. By formulating rations slightly above the average milk production, cows are charged to produce more and if they do not, the extra nutrition generally can be used for growth or added body condition. First lactation cow groups can be formulated for 30% above actual milk production of the group to allow for growth of these animals.
Moving cows between groups

After calving, cows should be moved first to the fresh cow group. Between 14 and 21 days after calving, healthy cows should be moved into the high production group. Cows should remain in a high production group until they are pregnant, or milk production drops to 10 percent or more below the average production of the group, and/or body condition score of the cows are greater than 3
Cows will usually drop in milk production when moved between groups. To minimize milk production
drops, follow these guidelines:

Move cows at feeding time to minimize fighting and social disruptions. Move cows on a regularly scheduled basis. This helps cows get accustomed to moving and social
changes.
If within about five weeks of moving into the high cow group or before 60 days in milk, the cow does not
reach the average milk production of the group, she should be moved to a lower production group.
Try to avoid large changes in ration nutrient content between groups. Drops in milk production resulting
from nutritional changes can be minimized as cows move between groups by formulating rations for not more than a 9 kg milk production difference.
Day to day TMR feeding

Rations for dairy cows are formulated on a dry matter basis and then the amounts of each feed fed are on an as is or as fed basis. Knowing the correct dry matter (100 - % moisture) of ensiled forages, and all other wet grains and feeds fed in the TMR is critical to the mixing and feeding of a balanced ration.
Every dairy farm feeding a TMR should have a moisture tester. All ensiled forages and wet feeds should
be tested at least once and preferably twice a week for moisture or DM.
Under or over estimating the DM content of a feed would lead to larger/shorter quantity than required. Feeders and dairy managers feeding a TMR can be alerted to changes in the dry matter content of feeds
through:
Changes in the size or volume of the TMR mixed. Cows having larger than the normal amount of feed remaining the next day (usually indicates feeds to
have increased in the dry matter).

Cows having no feed remaining the next day (usually indicates feeds have decreased in dry matter
content or increased in moisture).

Daily count of the number of cows in a group before feeding is necessary so the correct amount of feed
fed per cow is attained.

If feed intakes remain consistently 5 percent or about two kg as fed more or less than the original amount
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the ration was balanced for, the ration should be reformulated using the new changed feed intake amount.
Add feeds to the TMR mixer in the proper order. In mixers with augers, grains and other concentrate mixes are generally added first followed by ensiled
forages and dry forages last. With auger mixers, dry forages are best chopped or ground coarsely before being added to the mixer.
In vertical mixers with one or two center augers, dry or long forages are generally added first followed by
grains, concentrates and then ensiled forages such as corn silage.

In general, mixing 3- 5 minutes after the last feed ingredient has been added should be sufficient time to
mix the load thoroughly.

A TMR can be fed once per day, but twice per day is preferable, especially during hot, humid summer
months.
The TMR should be pushed in towards the pen 6 or more times per day. Cows eat the feed closest to
them first. They can only reach out about 72 centimeters from the pen to get the feed.
Watch for sorting of the TMR. The drier the TMR, the more the sorting. A TMR should be between 50 and
55% dry matter. Feeding the TMR more frequently than once per day or pushing feed in often helps reduce sorting problems.
Observe feed refusals each day. The feed remaining in the bunk just prior to feeding the new TMR should
look like the TMR about to be fed.

Calibrate mixer scales once every three months.
What is a feed block?

Feed blocks are a solidified block of agro-industrial by-products or mixed feeds used for feeding animals. A complete feed block would contain feedstuffs and mineral and salt mix to provide all nutrients in a balanced manner. A complete feed block is nothing, but a TMR presented in a block form. The value of feed blocks lies in their role as cost-effective supplements and as a means for preserving several high moistures agroindustrial by-products (e.g. tomato pulp, olive cake, pineapple waste, etc.). Although feed blocks are not a new technology as it evolved in early 1990 and somehow did not pick up that time. However, now this technology has emerged as the most pertinent and relevant technology in the light of dwindling feed resources, and increased demand for optimal and judicious use of these for feeding to vast population of livestock.
Method of manufacturing feed blocks

Blocks can be manufactured on a large scale in a factory. Distinctive formulae can be manufactured with different levels of urea, binders and a wide range of agro-industrial by-products, which are available locally. The concentrate mixture is prepared separately and then mixed with straw (in a specified ratio) in a specially designed mixer to ensure that the two components, which vary greatly in their densities, are adequately mixed. The mixed feed is compacted in a specially-designed hydraulic press. With the help of a binder, the process of densification results in concentrate particulate matter becoming physically attached to fibrous straw particles. The whole process brings uniformity to the feed, prevents selection of ingredients by the animal, increases
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palatability and minimizes the feed wastage. A few agencies have taken the initiative of developing and refining the feed-block technology in India. Fuel-efficient and labour-efficient models of machines for feed-block production have been developed.
Feed blocks improve animal performance

In many areas, animals are fed on poor-quality roughages and in most cases, their maintenance requirements are not met. Results of research showed that in such situations feed blocks, used as a supplementary feed, resulted in considerable improvement in weight gain, conception, and milk production and milk fat. Results of on-farm feeding trials with feed blocks, conducted recently on buffalo in rural areas around Karnal, showed a significant increase in milk production (1015 percent) compared with normal feeding practised by farmers in the villages. Although feed cost increased by 30 percent with block feeding, the profit earned was approximately 20 percent higher. Feeding CFB can increase the growth rate of calves by 25 to 30 percent and milk yield by 10 to15 percent. Furthermore, the milk yield persists longer, causing an increase in total lactation yield. The absence of dietary fluctuations results in a relatively stable microbial-ecology in the rumen which increases its efficiency. Feeding of CFB has resulted in earlier attainment of maturity of animals. This not only lowers the cost of rearing, but also reduces age at first calving. It also provides regularity to subsequent calvings and increases life-time production. The optimum supply of nutrients, including micronutrients has a positive effect on health, which keeps the animal free from many reproductive problems, e.g. late maturity, anoestrus and repeat breeding. Block feeding provides immuno-protection against infectious diseases resulting in significant savings in costs of medicating animals.
How economical are feed blocks?

As stated, feed blocks are made from available feeding resources and by-products, which are currently underused. These alternative supplements improve the nutritive value of low quality diets, increasing animal performance and alleviating livestock feeding costs. The use of feed blocks reduced the utilization of conventional concentrate feeds (barley grains, commercial concentrates, etc.) by more than 50%, considerably reducing imports, particularly in dry years.
Adoption and impact of this technology

Livestock owners have readily accepted feed blocks, and the technology has rapidly spread. Research work conducted so far indicates that this technology offers various options to livestock owners in the feeding management. Indications show that further research could lead to the broadening of the scope of utilization of this technology in order to meet specific nutritional requirements of the animals, including cows, at specific stages, for a better productivity. Furthermore, feed blocks can be enriched by other ingredients to increase their efficiency.
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Advantages of feed block technology

Provides a balanced ration for ruminants. An efficient nutrient-delivery system. Time and labour saving. Cheaper and easier storage and transportation Can check environmental pollution. Improved productive and reproductive efficiency Storage of bulky feeds possible Vehicle for feed additives/pharma/nutraceuticals
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11
Improving Poor Quality Roughages through Solid State Fermentation (SSF) Technology
Manpal Sridhar, A. Dhali and R. Bhatta National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Introduction
In India, agricultural crop-residues are abundantly available and constitute a major part of the diet of ruminant animals. Although the cellulose and hemicellulose present in these materials have their value for feeding cattle, their bioavailability requires the breakdown of the bonds with indigestible lignin. The rumen microbial utilization of the energy-rich cell walls of these crop residues is hindered by the presence of lignin, which limits its overall digestion process and can significantly influence the animal performance in livestock production systems. Thus, for the maximum utilization of any straw as cattle feed either complete or partial degradation of lignin from the lignocellulosic complex is necessary. Amongst the various methods used to improve the digestibility of crop residues, biological delignification has several advantages over chemical and physical treatments, including mild reaction conditions, avoidance of toxic and corrosive chemicals, higher product yields, fewer side reactions, less energy demands and less reactor resistance. Fungal bioconversion can lead to a loss of total organic matter, particularly cellulose, and therefore, selective degradation of lignin is important. White-rot fungi (WRF) have been studied for degradation of crop-residues under solid-state fermentation (SSF), as they are reported to degrade lignin more efficiently than any other group of microorganisms. They mainly degrade polysaccharide by hydrolytic enzymes (cellulases and xylanases) and lignin by oxidative ligninolytic enzymes such as lignin peroxidase (LiP), manganese peroxidase (MnP) and laccase. A majority of WRF degraded polysaccharide and lignin simultaneously, while some degrade lignin selectively under SSF. Enzyme production is an increasing field of Biotechnology. Most enzyme manufacturers produce enzymes by submerged fermentation (SmF) techniques. However, in the last decades there has been an increasing trend towards the use of the solid-state fermentation (SSF) technique to produce several enzymes. This process allows the production of lignocellulolytic enzymes that can be purified for various uses, and the residual biomass can be utilized as animal feed.
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Solid state fermentation

Solid state fermentation (SSF) is characterized as a fermentation process carried out on a solid medium with a low moisture content (Aw), typically 0.400.90, which occurs in a non-septic and natural state and is successfully exploited for production of food, enzymes, animal feeds and fuel. The use of SSF for protein enrichment of lignocellulose residues has received close attention due to its low-level technology, reduced reactor volume per unit weight of substrate converted and the direct applicability of the fermented product for feeding purposes. There are several important aspects, which should be considered in general for the development of any bioprocess in SSF. These include selection of suitable micro-organism and substrate, optimization of process parameters and isolation and purification of the product. During SSF, a large amount of heat is generated, which is directly proportional to the metabolic activities of the micro-organism (Lonsane et al., 1985). The solid materials/matrices used for SSF have low thermal conductivities; hence heat removal from the process could be very slow. In the early phases of SSF, temperature and concentration of oxygen remain uniform throughout the substrate but as the fermentation progresses, oxygen transfer takes place resulting in the generation of heat. The transfer of heat into or out of SSF system is closely related with the aeration of the fermentation system. The temperature of the substrate is also very critical in SSF as it ultimately affects the growth of the micro-organism, spore formation and germination, and product formation. High moistures results in decreased substrate porosity, which in turn prevents oxygen penetration. Water activity (a) of w the substrate has determinant influence on microbial activity. In general, the type of micro-organism that can grow in SSF systems are determined by a w which is attributed as a fundamental parameter for mass transfer of the water and solutes across the microbial cells. Modeling in SSF system is another important aspect, which needs to be studied in detail (Pandey, 2003). Not enough information is available on kinetics of reactions in SSF systems. This is mainly because of difficulties involved in the measurements of growth parameters, analysis of cellular growth and determination of substrate consumption, etc., which is caused due to heterogeneous nature of the substrate, which are structurally and nutritionally complex. In SSF, selection of a proper substrate is a key aspect of SSF, as the solid material is non-soluble that acts both as physical support and a source of nutrients. Solid material could be a naturally-occurring solid substrate such as agricultural crops, agro-industrial residues or inert support. However, it is not necessary to combine the role of support and substrate but rather reproduce the conditions of low water activity and high oxygen transference by using a nutritionally inert material soaked with a nutrient solution. In relation to selection of substrate, there could be two major considerations; one that there is a specific substrate, which requires suitable value-addition and/or disposal. Smaller substrate particles provide larger surface area for microbial attack - desirable factor. Too small a substrate particle result in substrate agumulation, interferes with microbial respiration/ aeration then result in poor growth. Larger particles provide better respiration/aeration efficiency (due to increased inter-particle space) -limited surface for microbial attack. The selection of a substrate also depends upon several factors, mainly related with cost and availability of the substrate, and thus may involve screening of several agro-industrial residues. In a SSF process, the solid substrate not only supplies the nutrients to the microbial culture growing in it but also serves as an anchorage for the cells. Agro-industrial residues are generally considered the best substrates for the SSF processes. Different agro-industrial residues have been investigated for their potential to be used as substrates.
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Though fungi are termed as suitable micro-organisms for SSF, bacteria and yeasts have also been used in traditional cultivation in SSF processes. Bacteria have been used for enzymes production, composting, ensiling and some food processes. Yeasts have been mainly used for ethanol production and protein enrichment of agricultural residues. Apart from the engineering aspects, modeling, selection of both substrate and microorganisms, there are several other important factors, which must be considered for the development of the SSF processes (Pandey et al., 2000). These include physicochemical and biochemical parameters such as particle size, initial moisture, pH and pre-treatment of the substrate, relative humidity, temperature of incubation, agitation and aeration, age and size of the inoculum, supplementation of nutrients such as N, P and trace elements, supplementation of additional carbon source and inducers, extraction of product and its purification, etc. The bioreactor is the heart of a fermentation process, wherein the raw material, under suitable conditions is converted to the desired product. SSF processes could be operated in batch, fed-batch or continuous modes, although batch processes are the most common. Agitation and rotation in SSF are often carried out to improve mass and heat transfers, but the shearing force caused by agitation and rotation has adverse effects on medium porosity and disrupts fungal mycelia. Over the years, different types of fermenters (bioreactors) such as trays, packed bed, rotating drum etc., have been employed for various purposes in SSF systems. Laboratory studies are generally carried out in Erlenmeyer flasks, beakers, petri dishes, roux bottles, jars and glass tubes (as column fermenter). The substrate bed of SSF bioreactor can: (a) either be left static or subjected to mixing and (b) either be aerated over or through the bed. Accordingly, the bioreactors used to perform SSF are broadly classified as: (1) tray bioreactors, (2) packed bed bioreactors, (3) rotating drum bioreactors, (4) gassolid fluidized bed bioreactors, (5) stirred aerated bed bioreactors and (6) rocking drum bioreactors.
Enhancement of nutritional value of agricultural by-products by SSF

The use of solid-state fermentation (SSF) to upgrade the nutritive value of agricultural byproducts, and for enzyme production has increased due to the higher quantity of residues produced in several countries representing a potential solution to feeding animals in developing countries. The advantage of using SSF to achieve both goals is the low-tech fermentation system required plus the possibility of having it carried out on farms. SSF is a poly factorial event, in which the fungus, its enzymes, physical structure of substrate, physiological factors of fermentation and culture and nutritional conditions play an important role in controlling lignin degradation and digestibility of fermented substrate. The use of SSF for protein enrichment of lignocellulosic residues has been a focus of attention due its direct applicability of the fermented product for ruminant feeds purposes. This material has low protein content and the fungal growth can improves digestibility by 1015%. Lignocellulosic agricultural residues enriched in microbial protein, enzymes and biofactors by SSF may be used as animal feed. On the other hand, the degradability of dietary protein in the rumen (which is the percentage of a dietary protein or N that is degraded in the rumen by the microorganisms) from fermented lignocellulosic by-product was higher compared with unfermented. Besides protein, an increase of total lipid and fatty acids was observed after solid-state fungal fermentation of agricultural residues. Fungal growth showed decrease in the neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and hemicellulosic contents of lignocellulosic fibers, increase in the bioavailability of nutrients, decrease in the anti-nutritional factors such as phytic acid, polyphenols and tannins. Thus, two nutritionally important contributions can be obtained from fermentative process: depolymerizing enzyme and a protein-enriched and high degradability of feed material. In addition, this process
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can convert residues widely available in the field into products of higher aggregated value. Several workers have reported protein enrichment on fungal treatment of various straws. The production of fungal protein is highly associated with organic matter losses and various factors like pH, temperature, moisture, aeration, heat transfer, nature of fungi, types of substrate and duration of fermentation influence the efficacy of the SSF for protein enrichment. Regarding the quality of N fixed up by the fungus, it has been argued that only part of the mycelial N may represent true protein with rest as chitin and nucleic acids. Thus numerous crop residues fermented with various fungi under solid state fermentation may be converted into protein-enriched feeds. However, the production of fungal protein is highly associated with organic matter losses. Various factors like pH, temperature, moisture aeration, heat transfer, nature of fungi, types of substrate and duration of fermentation are critical and influence the efficacy of the SSF. White-rot fungi such as Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Pleurotus sp. Lentinus edodes, Coriolus versicolor Phelbia sp. and Ceriporiopsis subvermispora have been largely studied for their ability to ferment the different crop residues (wheat straw, paddy straw ,sugarcane bagasse and other agro-industrial wastes ) to produce highly digestible animal feed .Several authors have reported the potential for white-rot fungi to degrade lignin and presented values that are quite variable depending on the strain, type of fermentation as well as on the incubation period. For instance, review papers analyzing the results of several authors presented values of wheat straw lignin degradation that varied between 2% and 65%. Research have shown that percentage loss of wheat straw lignin for P. radiata and T. versicolor was 18.5% and 12.5%, while other Phlebia spp. showed lignin losses that reached 25%. In a recent study the effect of steam explosion pre-treatment on lignin biodegradation of wheat straw by T. versicolor reported a decrease of around 30%. As stated before, lignin losses on the first 7 days of incubation were quite low with a more pronounced decrease afterwards. This is contrary to our observations with ragi straw where lignolysis was pronounced after two days and five days fermentation was optimum for degrading lignin as well as preventing excessive losses in dry matter. Solid-state fermentation of wheat straw with white-rot fungi of the genus Pleurotus has been shown to increase its rumen digestibility and susceptibility to enzymatic saccharification. These fungi form edible fruit bodies, and commercial growing of Pleurotus mushrooms is increasing worldwide. Simultaneous production of mushrooms and highly digestible animal feed by solid-state fermentation of straw with Pleurotus spp. would be economically attractive. However, experiments that have shown improvement of wheat straw digestibility by Pleurotus spp. were all conducted in such a way that mushrooms did not form or were not harvested. The largescale enrichment of lignocellulose in microbial protein by SSF, however, proved to be non-economical and a more promising avenue is the supplementation of animal rations with feed enzymes produced by SSF.
Utilization of agricultural residues for enzyme production by solid-state fermentation

The potential of depolymerizing enzymes for use in animal feeding also has been recognized for partial degradation of agro-industrial residues that serve as feed ingredients. Approximately 90% of all industrial enzymes are produced in SmF, frequently using specifically optimized, genetically manipulated microorganisms. In this respect SmF processing offers an insurmountable advantage over SSF. On the other hand, almost all these enzymes could also be produced in SSF using wild-type microorganisms. Interestingly, fungi, yeasts and bacteria that were tested in SSF in recent decades exhibited different metabolic strategies under conditions of solid state and submerged fermentation. Solid state fermentation (SSF) is a means for bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass. This process allows the production of lignocellulolytic enzymes that can be purified for various uses and the residual biomass can be utilized as animal feed. SSF produces metabolites in a more concentrated form than submerged fermentation, purification procedures are generally
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cheaper and since SSF operates under low moisture conditions, bacterial contamination is minimized. Such residues have yielded good results in the production of enzymes including pectinases, amylases, ligninases, inulinases , chitinases , and phytases. This technique is also finding application in cattle production. Moreover, SSF processes present an increased opportunity for underdeveloped or developing countries where current economical difficulties and globalization of the world economy do not permit farming and cattle raising sector to accompany the biotechnological evolution. Lignocellulose decomposing microorganisms can be selected as producers of enzymes under specific growth conditions using substrates of low commercial value including agricultural and agro industrial residues. Several studies have been conducted to identify white-rot fungi that can degrade lignin bonds but preserve cellulose fibers and improve the quality of lignocellulosic substrates for ruminant feeding (Table1). Table 1. Enzymes produced by fungi using by-products for livestock feeding
Substrate Ragi straw Microorganism(s) P . chrysosporium Pleurotus ostreatus Pleurotus sajor caju Voriella volvoraceae Trichoderma reesei Bacillus licheniformis Talaromyces emersonii Thermoascus aurantiacus Fusarium oxysporum Enzyme(s) Laccase Lignin peroxidase Manganese peroxidase Cellulase Hemicellulase Protease Endo-glucanase Xylanase Endoglucanase Celobiohydrolase -Glucosidase Xylanase -Xylosidase CMCase -Glucosidase Xylanase Cellulase, xylanase Endoglucanase -Glucosidase Cellulase, hemicellulase Cellulase Cellulase, hemicellulase Lignin peroxidase Cellulase Ligninase Ligninase Cellulase, xylanase Glucanase
Rice straw
Barley Corn silage Corn stalk
Corn straw
Penicillium decumbens
Alfalfa Forage silage Wheat straw
Gliocladium spp. Orpinomyces joyonii Caecomyces communis Streptomyces Neurospora crassa Several fungi Trichoderma reesei P. chrysosporium Coriolus versicolor Streptomyces White rot fungi P .chrysosporium Coriolus versicolor
Sugarcane bagasse
Sugarcane bagasse, wheat straw, corn cobs, rice husks, peanut shells, etc. Soy hulls
Chaetomium globosum Coriolus versicolor P. chrysosporium Trichoderma reesei Neurospora sitophila
Cellulase
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Results indicate that degradation of the lignocellulosic matrix is a complex phenomenon controlled by a large number of variables that limit the use of such fungi. However, most of these studies were preliminary and used lignin degradation and improvement in the in vitro digestibility of dry matter as indicators for assessment of the efficacy of the biological treatment. Other reports have evaluated addition of enzyme preparations ensiling for the hydrolysis of cell wall components to ensiled products to improve the nutritive value and to increase ruminal cell wall digestion. However, few studies testing direct addition of these enzymes to ruminant diets are available and in vivo results may not parallel in vitro findings. In vitro methods are less expensive, less time consuming, and allow more control of experimental conditions than in vivo experiments and can also accommodate a large number of enzyme candidates. There are some limitations concerning value of enzymes fed to animals. The complete characterization of enzyme products before their use is important, as it should lead to the development of more effective, science-based enzyme additives. On the other hand, enzyme-feed specificity presents a major dilemma for formulating new ruminant feed enzymes products because most commercial ruminant diets contain several types of forages and concentrates. Therefore, to achieve maximal benefit, a number of different enzyme sources would need to be used in a typical diet. Mycotoxin production can be another limiting factor when added microorganisms without generally recognized as safe or GRAS. However, differences in activation of secondary metabolism in SSF and SmF have been reported. The growing of Penicillium viridicatumin wheat straw, orange bagasse and sugarcane bagasse decrease aflatoxin and ochratoxin levels to low quantity, less than minimum acceptable. For example, enzymes produced by mesophilic fungi such as Trichoderma and Aspergillus spp. normally have a temperature optimum between 45 and 60 ?C, which is lower than temperatures found during the more advanced stages of silage processing. Ideally, enzymes must act rapidly during the crucial first stage of ensilage before they become thermally inactivated. Enzymes require an optimal activity and stability for a prolonged period of time to be effective. Mesophilic enzymes preserve at least 70% of their activity for 48 h at 39 ?C at a pH ranging from 4.0 to 6.8; enzymes from thermophilic microorganisms often have greater stability than enzymes from mesophilic microbes. By increasing enzyme stability, the yield of products to be used in ruminant diets can be increased. In addition, direct use of enzymes as additives in rations or food supplements to act inside the rumen, may prove practical. Such enzymes must be stable under the physicochemical conditions of the rumen, such as a pH of about 6.0 and temperatures of up to 40 ?C as well as resistance to salts and proteases. Most commercially available enzymatic products that have been tested as food additives for ruminants were not designed specifically for this purpose. Instead enzymatic preparations containing cellulases and xylanases destined for use in the food, pulp, paper, textile, fuel and other chemical industries have been used. Several other products containing fibrolytic enzymes evaluated as additives for ruminant diets were developed originally as silage additives. Enzymatic activities of most commercial products as specified by the manufacturer are markedly higher than would be observed under conditions found in the rumen. Another important aspect regarding use of enzymes as diet additives is the commercial cost, because the fermentation medium is one of the important components that determine the final price of the product, low cost substrates are desired as substrates. Economic analysis of the production of lipase by Penicillium restrictum in SSF and SmF cultures showed that the investment capital necessary for SmF was 78% higher than that required for SSF; consequently, the price of the SSF product was 47% lower. The mechanism whereby enzymatic additives might improve fiber digestibility by ruminants is not well understood. Direct hydrolysis in the rumen is one a potential mode of action. However, ruminal activity to be quantified due to the low activity of added exogenous hydrolases when compared to the
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total enzymatic activity present in the rumen. Furthermore, extent of ruminal digestion may be limited by factors other than enzyme activity such as substrate accessibility associated with large particle size of masticated forage and short ruminal retention time. Some enzyme activities may, however, be more labile than others. If such an activity were a key component of the mode of action of feed-additive enzymes for ruminants, it would appear likely that enzyme activity might be protected by simple means. Applying enzymes as feed supplements promises to be the simplest technology for achieving such amplification in the immediate future. Application of a moderate level of enzyme to ruminant feeds caused some beneficial disruption of the surface structure of the feed either before or after ingestion. In other studies, some authors demonstrated that high levels of enzyme addition can be less effective than low levels, and the optimal level may depend on the diet. This sequential action of enzymes in lignin degradation was also reported. The maximum of MnP and laccase activities were detected during the first 10 days of wheat straw incubation with T. versicolor, lignin degradation started later and tended to increase until the maximum degradation rate was reached on day 30.
Conclusions
The potential advantages of SSF for protein enrichment can be seen if scale-up parameters, such as cooling and heat transfer can be more easily controlled. The low Aw, although benefiting the inoculum in terms of competition, has a detrimental effect on the basis of heat transfer. Metabolic heat generated by rapidly growing microorganisms due to better mixing and aeration of reactors, also poses problems for the SSF system affecting product formation. Additional heat through the friction of mixing supplements adds to the problems of heat exchange. SSF can produce a more concentrated protein product that may be used as an animal feed in both developing and developed countries. As SSF bioreactors have increased in size in order to try and increase the product concentration so too have the problems concerning parameter controls. The benefits of SSF for protein enrichment maybe better realized in situ, on farms in developing countries, which can avail of this relatively low-tech fermentation system. It is apparent that SSF may be a viable technology for the enrichment of previously worthless waste residues for animal feed. The focus in SSF application will be on searching for hostspecific, SSF targeted fungi, and on their genetic improvement for desired tasks. Those applications will have the greatest perspective, where the transformed lignocellulose is a value added product, bio-pulp, compost, bio-fertilizer, bio-pesticide, bio-promoter, or where a fermented SSF product (enzyme, chemicals, etc.) may be used directly in animal feeds or in bio-fuel reactors. The engineering aspects of SSF must be further developed, with special attention to mixed culturing and the behavior of lignocellulose during SSF.
Further reading
Couto, S.R., Sanroman, M.A., 2006. Application of solid-state fermentation to food industrya review. J. Food Eng. 76, 291302. Holker, U., Lenz, J., 2005. Solid-state fermentationare there any biotechnological advantages? Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 8, 301306. Lonsane, B.K., Ghildyal, N.P., Butiatman, S., Ramakrishma, S.V., 1985. Engineering aspects of solid state fermentation.Enzyme Microb. Technol. 7, 258265. Pandey, A., 2003. Solid-state fermentation. Biochem. Eng. J. 13, 8184.
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12
Manipulation of Rumen Environment for Efficient Utilization of Ligno-cellulosic Biomass
A. Thulasi, Lyju Jose, P. K. Malik, M. Bagath, D. Rajendran, N. M. Soren, Vishnu Prasad and K.P. Prabha National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore
Many of the tropical / developing countries are the richest area in terms of vegetation content. These countries import large quantity of plant protein to meet the requirement/demand of growing human population. Ruminant animals act as an important source of animal protein in these regions. Ruminants are mainly maintained /fed on poor-quality roughage or ligno-cellulosic agro industrial by products with or without concentrate supplementation resulting in poor productivity of the animals. Additionally tropical forages have some important limitation for animals feeding like: Tropical forges have low energy value because their cell walls contain a higher amount of lignin, silica and cutin resulting in lower fermentation of structural carbohydrate Tropical forages in comparison to temperate forages produce less amount of VFA and microbial biomass (microbial protein) after rumen fermentation, Intake of tropical forages by the animals is low due to their poor rumen digestion and prolonged retention time (Dominiguez Bello and Escoboar, 1997) They are deficient of essential nutrients: contain lower amount of energy, protein and minerals (Minson, 1980) Feeding of tropical forages to the animal results in imbalance in digestive end products (high acetate and low propionate) which causes inefficient utilization of metabolizable energy Many plant species, particularly legumes and tree leaves contain anti-nutritional compounds.
Therefore, considerable scope exists for manipulation of rumen fermentation to improve the utilization of forages, particularly in tropical as well as developing countries to maximize the productivity of animals by using available resources. The rumen microbial population attack, degrade and ferment structural carbohydrates in plant cell walls and provide volatile fatty acids and protein to the host animal. Microbial colonization of fibre is quite rapid; however, the rate and extent to which fiber is degraded is determined by
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factors such as microbial accessibility to the substrate, physical, chemical nature of the forage and kinetics of rumen digestion. The physical and chemical nature of forages presents a barrier to their complete digestion in the rumen, especially the association of lignin with polysaccharide constituents. Adhesin proteins allow bacteria with cellbound enzymes to come into intimate contact with their substrates, ensuring that the degradation products are preferentially available. Research on various fibrolytic enzymes and cellulose binding domains may allow for the transfer of novel genetic material to bacteria for enhancing the hydrolysis of plant cell walls. Fungi may also play an important synergistic role in the rumen digestion of forages by physically disrupting the lignified stem tissue. This allows the rumen microbes greater access to the plant stem and the digestible portions of the plant. New developments in fibre utilization by ruminants are currently under investigation and include genetic manipulation of rumen bacteria, chemical and biological treatments of forages, and manipulation of dietary inputs and feeding management. Anaerobic fermentation of feeds in the rumen is beneficial for the host animal. The co-existence of animal and its microbial eco-system has resulted in stable and the most favoured natural selection of microbes to perform the fermentation process optimally. Therefore, do we really need the manipulation of the rumen ecosystem? The answer to this question is definitely yes. During last three decades high producing varieties of plant and livestock have been evolved world over by genetic manipulation using scientific selection and breeding and also by application of biotechnological tools. Likewise, there exist considerable scope for selection and improvement of rumen microbial strains for improved feed utilization, better feed conversion efficiency and production performance of the animals. The rumen microbial ecosystem is not so efficient for digestion of ingested feed as evident from the presence of sizable portion of undigested feeds in the faeces and production of a large amount of methane gas in the rumen which could be otherwise utilized as a source of energy by the animals. Research efforts have been devoted to the manipulation of rumen metabolism with the final aim of improving ruminant productivity. Manipulation of rumen fermentation can be considered as an optimization process, whereby optimal conditions are sought by maximization and/or minimization of the fermentation process, depending on factors such as kind of and level of feeding and animal production.
Major objectives of rumen manipulation Enhance fibrolytic activity

To increase the fibre degradation, mainly through manipulation of lignocellulosic bonds in high lignocellulosic feeds as the rumen microbes are the only degraders of cellulose and hemicelluloses.
Increase microbial protein synthesis

A major portion of the amino acid reaching the duodenum is of microbial protein origin. Therefore, attempts should be made to maximize microbial protein synthesis in the rumen.
Reduction in proteolysis
Hydrolysis of feed protein, deamination of amino acids and re-utilization of ammonia for microbial protein synthesis are all energy-consuming processes, hence the degradation of protein and deamination of amino acids in the rumen should be discouraged.
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Reduction in methanogenesis
Methane generation in the rumen is a wasteful process as 5-10% of GE intake of ruminants is converted into methane. The provision of an alternate hydrogen sink in the rumen may help in increasing digestible energy (DE) availability for production.
Prevention of acidosis
In high grain fed animals, the level of lactic acid can be controlled to avoid acidosis and inhibition of feed utilization due to lowered pH of the rumen liquor.
Shifting acetate to propionate production

In fattening beef/lambs the production of propionate in the rumen at the expense of acetate may be helpful.
Novel microbes
The quality of protein is important in high producing ruminants. Microbes can be tailored to synthesize the amino acids in the form of the peptides and supply to the animals in the intestine.
Metabolism of plant toxins

Rumen fermentation can be manipulated for efficient utilization of feeds which contain anti nutritional factors viz. tannin, saponin, mimosine, etc. Microbial communities operating in gastrointestinal tracts of herbivorous animals, termites and earthworms, are continuously exposed to a strong diet-driven selective pressure by chemically diverse and complex plant polymeric compounds, and thus represent a rich hotspot for diverse -glucosidases. The latter can be identified and characterized using functional metagenomics approach, a promising technique to assess the genetic content of complex microbial communities without culturing individual members of microbial communities. Nevertheless, despite recent discoveries and availability of novel -glucosidases from uncultured microbes, their potential for the enzymatic conversion of lignocellulose into fermentable sugars has not been assessed as yet.
Methods of rumen manipulation

Several techniques of rumen manipulation have been tried in different laboratories of the world during the last three decades with varying results. Broadly, the methods of rumen manipulation can be classified in two i.e., genetic manipulation and non-genetic manipulation. In genetic manipulation, attempts were made to develop genetically engineered rumen microbes by gene transfer/manipulation technique to enhance the animal productivity. However, success in the field of genetic manipulation of rumen microbes is very poor/ sporadic. Non genetic manipulation of the rumen can be done by physical methods (dietary manipulation) and by using suitable chemicals or feeding microbes (probiotics).
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Genetic rumen manipulation

Naturally present microorganisms in the rumen can be genetically modified to enhance their capacity of defined functions or to add new functions. Introductions of diverse genes into gut microorganisms have been extensively explored. The genetically modified microorganisms are either able to digest fibrous components and lignin of forage or degrade toxins or synthesize essential amino acids or reduce rumen methane production and tolerate acids. The second approach would be to introduce new species or strains of microorganisms into the gut. Application of the aforesaid two approaches has a great potential to increase digestibility of feedstuffs and to improve animal production (Santra and Karim, 2003) The first step in the process of genetic modification of rumen microbes is the selection of desired gene, which has to be engineered i.e., if cellulose degradation is to be improved, the bacteria which are deficient in cellulose degradation should be selected. Fibrobacter succinogenes which form succinic acid as one of the end products of cellulose fermentation is one such example. This bacterium can be modified to contain a large number of genes for cellulose degradation so that cellulose degradation in the rumen becomes increased. After selecting the desired gene a suitable vector for carrying the gene to the recipient cell is required. One of the most important vectors is the plasmid, which has extra chromosomal genetic material unable to integrate with the chromosomal genetic material and remains autonomous and is dispensable. Some of the rumen bacteria harbour plasmids. The plasmid of rumen bacteria can be recombined with the bacteria containing the desired gene. The recombined plasmid is then transferred back into rumen bacteria to facilitate the insertion of desired genetic property. It is always recommended to use a shuttle vector which has two replication origins and replicates in two host species. Thus, the genetic manipulation/engineering work can be done in bacteria, easy to handle e.g. Escherichia coli and then transfer the recombined genetic material into the rumen bacteria which can be used for practical application. The genes which have been cloned in Escherichia coli are endoglucanase, xylanase, glucosidase, amylase, glutamine synthetase from the donor source, including Bacteroides fibrisolvens, Ruminococcus flavefaciens, Fibrobacter succinogenes, Neocallimastix frontalis, Streptococcus bovis, etc. The physiological conditions in the rumen are not favourable for most of the non-rumen microbes. The genetically engineered microbes (rumen origin or non-rumen origin) mostly have low competitive ability to survive in a mixed culture. Prevotella ruminicola has a half-life of less than thirty minutes in the rumen, which has been attributed to bacteriocin like activity present in the rumen liquor. The rumen bacteria from one ruminant may not necessarily be established in the rumen of another animal. The best example of the successful introduction of a new organism that was not genetically modified in the rumen was the introduction of bacteria that was capable of degrading 3-hydroxy-4 (1H)-pyridone (DHP) into Australian ruminants. These animals were not able to utilize Leucaena leucocephala having a toxic factor mimosine which was degraded to the toxic goitrogen DHP by the rumen bacteria. It had been reported that Australian goats consuming Leucaena leucocephala developed toxicosis, but Hawaiian goats consuming the same plant species did not develop toxicosis. Moreover, inoculation of enriched cultures derived from the rumen content of Hawaiian goats into Australian ruminants conferred resistance to Leucaena poisoning. Synergistes jonesii, a new bacterial species, capable of metabolizing DHP was isolated from goats resistant to mimosine toxicity. Culture of this organism was subsequently used as inoculant to protect ruminants in other parts of the world from mimosine toxicity.
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The problems with the establishment of genetically engineered rumen bacteria are too many and very complex. In addition to the scientific and technical problems involved in the establishment of these bacteria in the rumen, the existing regulations about the release of genetically engineered microbes in the atmosphere is also a limitation. A more realistic approach will be to study as to whether the introduced genetic product can serve the purpose of improving rumen fermentation (Wallace, 1994). The success of this approach will depend upon the stability of these gene products against its degradation in the rumen.
Non genetic rumen manipulation Microbial feed additives (probiotics)

The digestion process in ruminant occurs by chemical reaction, and by fermentation brought about by the rumen microflora. During the last decade, the rumen and intestinal microflora balance have been recognized as main factors to manipulate in order to obtain the best growth performance of the animals. These microflora are essential to the animal's health, whereas, their equilibrium is constantly threatened by the proliferation of undesirable microbes, detrimental to the health and performance of the animals. Therefore, use of live microbial cultures (probiotics) is being used as natural feed additives for enhancing rumen metabolic activity and thereby improves the overall animal production. Supplementation of different probiotics (fungi/yeast and bacteria) resulted in improved nutrient status and productivity of the ruminants under certain conditions. Superior strains of rumen fungi with better cellulolytic activity have been isolated, and their interspecies trans inoculation studied. A polycentric fungal strain (Orpinomyces strain KNGF2) was isolated from the rumen of a Korean native goat and by feeding this isolated rumen fungi to sheep, the following results were obtained: better nutrient digestibility nitrogen retention increase rumen bacterial and fungal number The microorganisms used as probiotics should possess the following properties: Resistance to low pH and bile salt, production of lactate and other antimicrobial agents, a normal inhabitants of the gut in the target animal species, able to survive, colonize and multiply at a faster rate in the gut, viable product can be formed at an industrial scale for its commercialization, stable and viable during long storage and field conditions and must produce the beneficial effects in host animals. The effects of probiotics are greatest in the fast-growing animals and diminish with age. This age effect is consistent with the capacity of the normal gut flora to resist change as the animal grows with the most stable situation occurring in the adult animals. The utilization of probiotics in farm animals may contribute in the following aspects: Growth promotion, improved feed conversion efficiency, better absorption of nutrients by control of gut epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation, improved metabolism of carbohydrate, calcium and synthesis of vitamins, neutralization of anti-nutritional factors, i.e., trypsin inhibitor, phytic acid, etc., microbial enzyme production, compensating for deficient intestinal enzyme activities of the host, elimination or control of intestinal microorganisms producing sub clinical or clinical diseases, stimulation of nonspecific and specific immunity at the intestinal level.
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Administration of probiotics in livestock may be most effective under following conditions: After birth to encourage the early establishment of beneficial rumen microflora Following antibiotic treatment In the presence of enteric pathogen such as E. coli, Salmonella, Coccidia During environmental or mangemental stress In calves, administration of probiotics may be most effective under the following circumstances: After birth Before and after transportation At weaning Following over eating or antibiotic administration
Defaunation
The process of making the rumen of animals free of protozoa is called defaunation and the animal is called defaunated animal. The role of rumen ciliate protozoa on the performance of host animals became debatable issue when it was demonstrated that rumen protozoa was non-essential for growth in lambs. Nevertheless, the reports of recent years reflect that though protozoa may be non-essential for ruminant, still they have a significant role to play in the rumen metabolism specially to stabilize the rumen pH. Rumen protozoa are the largest in size among rumen microbes and contribute 40-50% of the total microbial biomass and enzyme activities in the rumen.
Effect of defaunation on the rumen ecosystem rumen microbes

Defaunation causes both qualitative and quantitative change in the rumen bacterial population. After defaunation, the bacterial population is increased, since rumen protozoa feed on the rumen bacteria to meet their nitrogen requirement. A total of 4 to 45 g bacterial dry matter is engulfed by rumen protozoa per day per sheep. Defaunation increases the number of amylolytic bacteria due to elimination of nutritional competition between bacteria and protozoa for using starch whereas the cellulolytic bacterial population become decreased. Fungal population in the rumen also increases due to defaunation. It was reported that there was a predation of fungal zoospores by rumen protozoa, but it is still unclear whether the increase in fungal population following defaunation is a consequence of reduction in the predation by the protozoa or increased availability of nutrients for fungal growth in the absence of protozoa. Rumen is a natural fermentative anaerobic system which should be manipulated essentially by altering the composition of rumen microflora. There is ample scope to manipulate the rumen by feeding local plants or tree leaves or agro industrial by products to defaunate the animals for improving its productivity. Introduction of naturally-occurring microorganism from the digestive system of one species to another species for efficient degradation of plant toxins as well as for efficient utilization of nutrients will be one of the major thrust areas in near future for rumen manipulation. Genetically manipulation of the rumen microorganisms for efficient rumen fermentative digestion has an enormous biotechnological potential. Development of suitable vectors that act as gene transfer systems is important to obtain genetically modified rumen bacteria. Specific genes (exoglucanase, acetyl esterase, feruloyl esterase) could be introduced into
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rumen bacteria by genetic engineering, promoting, among others, improved plant cell wall digestion and detoxification of certain plant toxins. These will potentially result in improved nutrient utilization and animal production. Various speculations have been made about the prospects of genetically modified organisms. Recent reports on the cloning of the dehalogenase gene from Moraxella spp. into Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens and its stability, over 500 generations without antibiotic selection have raised hopes. However, research on rumen bacteria with regard to genetic manipulation has a long way to go before a modified organism can find its way from the test tube to the animal in any significant number for research purposes. However, in tropical countries, more emphasis should be given for manipulating the rumen to increase cellulolytic activity for efficient utilization of low grade roughages.
References
Dominguez Bello, M.G and Escobar, A.1977. Rumen manipulation for the improved utilization of tropical forages. Animal Feed Science and Technology 69:91-102 Minson, D.J.1980. Nutritional differences between tropical and temperate pasture. In: Grazing animals (Ed. F. H. W. Marely) Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 143-157. Santra, A. and. Karim, S.A. 2003. Rumen Manipulation to Improve Animal Productivity. Asian- Aust. Journal of Animal Sciences 16:748-763.
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13
The Importance of Feeding Exogenous Enzymes in Dairy Cattle
D.T. Pal, N. K. S. Gowda, N. C. Vallesha and C. S. Prasad National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Enzymes play a key role in the digestive process. Although enzymes are produced by the animal, itself or by the microbes naturally present in the digestive tract, specific activities necessary to break down some compounds in feed are not found or are at low levels in the digestive tract. Therefore, exogenous enzymes are added in the diet to break down these compounds. Many years ago, nutritionists had generally regarded enzyme addition to diets as a futile effort on the basis that proteolysis in the stomach and anterior small intestine would result in inactivation before they could be of significant digestive benefit. However, later on it had been found that addition of a diastatic enzyme material to a high fiber chick-diet improved growth and feed efficiency. The supplementation of barley-based poultry diets with a crude mixture containing -glucanase activity gave a significant improvement on the performance of the birds as well as an improvement in litter quality. Since then, a lot of research work has been done about the use of exogenous enzymes in animal feed. Feed enzymes are added to animal feed to increase the availability of nutrient by digesting the feed components during storage or after consumption within the gastrointestinal tract. Some of the enzymes that have been used over the past several years and have the potential for use in the feed industry include cellulase (-glucanases), xylanases and associated enzymes, phytases, proteases, lipases, and galactosidases. Most of the enzymes used in the feed industry have been applied for poultry to neutralize the effects of the viscous, nonstarch polysaccharides in cereals such as barley, wheat, rye, and triticale. Recently, considerable interest has been shown in the use of phytase as a feed additive. The addition of phytase to feed improves phosphorus utilization in both ruminant and monogastric animals, reducing the need for supplemental inorganic phosphate and helps in reducing the environmental problems that arise from organic phosphate excretion. Thus, enzyme supplementation in the feed play an important role in increasing the availability of nutrients and retarding the adverse effect of anti-nutritional factors present in the feed components.
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Feed enzymes for ruminants

Over the years, significant improvements in forage cell wall digestibility have been achieved through forage breeding programs and agronomic advances. Despite these improvements, forage digestibility continues to limit the intake of available energy by ruminants, and correspondingly, contributes to excessive nutrient excretion by the livestock. The use of exogenous fibrolytic enzymes holds promise as a means of increasing forage utilization and improving the productive efficiency of ruminants. Recent studies have shown that adding exogenous fibrolytic enzymes to ruminant diets increases milk production and average daily gain in some cases. These increases in animal performance are due to increases in feed digestion. Numerous studies have reported increased digestion of DM and fiber measured in situ, in vitro or in vivo. However, not all studies have reported improved animal performance due to the use of exogenous enzymes and viewed across a variety of enzyme products and experimental conditions the response to feed enzymes by ruminants has been variable. Commercial enzymes used for the livestock feed industry are products of microbial fermentation. Feed enzymes are produced by a batch fermentation process, beginning with a seed culture and growth media. Once the fermentation is complete, the enzyme protein is separated from the fermentation residues and source organism. Although the source organisms are, in many cases, similar in enzyme products, the types and activity of enzymes produced can vary widely depending upon the strain selected, and the growth substrate and culture conditions used. Enzyme products for ruminant diets are of fungal (mostly Trichoderma longibrachiatum, Aspergillus niger, A. oryzae) and bacterial (mostly Bacillus spp.) origin. Several fibrolytic enzyme products evaluated as feed additives in ruminant diets were originally developed as silage additives. In addition to these relatively pure sources of enzymes, crude fermentation products and some nonbacterial direct-fed microbials (DFM) are also marketed, at least partly or implicitly, based on their residual enzymic content. In this case, the enzymes, as well as the entire medium, are recovered complete with metabolites and fermentation substances. Most nonbacterial DFM consisted of A. oryzae fermentation extract, Saccharomyces cerevisiae cultures, or both. In comparison to concentrated feed enzyme products, these crude products contain relatively little (<5%) enzyme activity.
Enzyme activities involved in cell wall digestion

The focus of most enzyme-related research for ruminants has been on plant cell wall degrading enzymes. Cellulose and hemicellulose, the major structural polysaccharides in plants, are converted to soluble sugars by enzymes collectively referred to as cellulases and hemicellulases. The types of cellulases and hemicellulases can differ substantially among commercial enzyme products, and differences in the relative proportions and activities of these individual enzymes may have an impact on the efficacy of cell wall degradation by these products. In addition to fiber-degrading enzymes, these products also have secondary enzyme activities, including amylases, proteases, and pectinases. The major enzymes involved in cellulose hydrolysis are A. Endocellulase - Endoglucanase, - Endo--1,4-glucanase, - Carboxymethyl cellulase or - -1,4-glucan glucanohydrolase
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B. Exocellulase - Exoglucanase, - Exo--1,4-glucanase, - Cellulose -1,4-cellobiosidase C. -glucosidase - Cellobiase - Glucohydrolase The main enzymes involved in degrading the xylan polymer to soluble sugars are - Xylanases (EC 3.2.1.8) - endoxylanases - -1,4-xylosidases - -1,4 xylosidase Other hemicellulase enzymes involved primarily in the digestion of side chains include - -mannosidase - -l-arabinofuranosidase - -d-glucuronidase - -d-galactosidase - acetyl xylan esterases - ferulic acid esterase
Animal responses to feed enzymes

The use of exogenous fiber-degrading enzyme additives for ruminants was first examined in the 1960s. Many of these early enzyme products were poorly characterized; animal responses were variable, and little to no effort was made to design these products, specifically for ruminants. In the last decade, researchers have reexamined the potential use of exogenous enzymes for ruminants due to higher feed costs, lower costs of enzyme production, and the availability of more active and better defined enzyme preparations. However, descriptions of the enzyme products in most research papers are still generic at best. The formulation of enzyme products for ruminants has evolved over time, but it is difficult to follow these changes based on the information provided in the published literature. For example, there is no way of knowing whether an enzyme product from a particular enzyme supplier is the same from study to study. Typically, the enzyme products evaluated for ruminants are blends of various cellulases and xylanases that were originally produced and marketed for other uses. Thus, the components of a ruminant enzyme product can change over time due to improvements in production and strain selections of the enzymes driven by other markets. Also, ruminant enzyme products have been reformulated as new information became available.
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Dairy cattle
There is evidence that adding fibrolytic enzymes to forage diets can improve fiber digestibility, but whether increased digestibility improves performance of cattle may depend on the physiological status of the cattle and the conditions during the experiment. The results of adding fibrolytic enzymes to high-grain diets have been surprisingly more consistent than those for high-forage diets. Applying enzyme products to high grain-based diets improves the feed efficiency depending on the level of enzyme addition and the increased feed efficiency may be due to increase diet digestibility on enzyme supplementation. A number of studies have examined the effects of fibrolytic exogenous enzymes on digestibility and milk production in dairy cows. From the studies, it has been found that the average increase in DMI was 1.0 1.3 kg/d, and the average increase in milk yield was 1.1 1.5 kg/d. Thus, when viewed across a variety of enzyme products and experimental conditions, the response is positive, but the variability is also high. Total-tract digestion of DM and organic matter are greater for cows fed exogenous amylase enzymes compared to those fed normal diets. The 3.5% fat-corrected milk production was found better on amylase fed animals. Cows in early lactation fed treated forage with cellulase/xylanase mixture (1ml/kg TMR, DM basis) produced 16% more milk than untreated diet. Similarly adding an enzyme product to the concentrate portion of a diet (supplying 1.3 g/kg of TMR on a DM basis) and observed a 10% increase in milk production for cows in early lactation. It is clear that exogenous enzymes can be effective for ruminants, but it is important to determine the conditions that are most likely to result in positive responses. The addition of exogenous amylase enzymes to the diets of lactating dairy cows has the potential to improve animal productivity.
Variability in animal response

In general, results with dairy cows indicate a positive response to enzymes, but the results are variable. The variability can be attributed to several factors such as - Enzyme type - Level of supplementation - Method of enzyme application - Energy balance of the test animals.
Method of providing enzyme to animals

The exogenous enzyme products can be supplemented to dairy cows in following forms:I) In a liquid form onto feeds prior to consumption
ii) To total mixed ration (TMR) iii) To hay iv) To ensiled forages v) To concentrate feeds vi) In supplements or premix vii) Infusion into the rumen Applying fibrolytic exogenous enzymes in a liquid form onto feeds prior to consumption can have a positive effect on animal performance. In contrast, infusion of enzymes into the rumen has not been effective. The close association of enzymes with feed may enable some form of pre-ingestive attack of the enzymes upon
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the plant fiber and/or enhance binding of the enzymes to the feed, thereby increasing the resistance of the enzymes to proteolysis in the rumen. There is apparently little or no requirement for a reaction phase or incubation time between treatment and feeding of forages. It had been observed that there was an increase in total-tract NDF digestibility when an enzyme solution was applied to dry hay prior to feeding, but there was no difference between applying the enzyme immediately before feeding and a 24-h incubation period. Exogenous enzymes may be expected to be more effective when applied to high-moisture feeds (such as silages) compared to dry feeds because of the higher moisture content. The requirement for water in the hydrolysis of soluble sugars from complex polymers is a fundamental biochemical principle. Furthermore, silage pH values are usually at, or around, the optimal pH for most fungal enzymes. In some of the studies it has been observed that adding enzyme to concentrate to be effective
Level of animal productivity

Animal responses to exogenous enzymes are expected to be greatest in situations in which fiber digestion is compromised and when energy is the first-limiting nutrient in the diet. High-producing dairy cows require high levels of available energy to meet the demands of milk production. It is not uncommon for feed intake of dairy cows to exceed four times the level of intake required for maintenance. In these situations, fiber digestion is often compromised due to low ruminal pH and rapid transit time through the rumen. The exogenous enzymes improve feed digestion when the potential digestibility of the diet is not attained because digestion is compromised. It is this loss in digestible energy that is captured with the use of feed enzymes. The response to exogenous enzymes is greater for dairy cows in early lactation than for those in later lactation.
Implications
Adding exogenous fibrolytic enzymes to dairy cow diets can potentially improve cell wall digestion and the efficiency of feed utilization by ruminants. Positive responses in milk production and growth rate have been observed for cattle fed some enzyme products, although results have been inconsistent. Some of the variation can be attributed to product formulation, under- or over-supplementation of enzyme activity, inappropriate method of providing the enzyme product to the animal, and the level of productivity of the test animal. Research is needed to understand the mode of action of these products so that on-farm efficacy of ruminant enzyme technology can be assured. With increasing consumer concern about the use of growth promoters and antibiotics in ruminant production, and the magnitude of increased animal performance obtainable using feed enzymes, these products could play an important role in future ruminant production systems.
Further reading
Klingerman, CM., Hu, W., McDonell, E.E., DerBedrosian, M.C. and Kung, L Jr. 2009. An evaluation of exogenous enzymes with amylolytic activity for dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 92: 1050-1059. Colombatto, D. 2000. Use of enzymes to improve fibre utilization in ruminants. A biochemical and in vitro rumen degradation assessment. Ph.D. Diss., Univ. of Reading, U.K. Higginbotham, G.E., dePetters, E.J., Berry, S.L. and Ahmadi, A. 1996. Effect of adding a cell wall degrading enzyme to a total mixed ration for lactating dairy cows. Prof. Anim. Sci. 12:8185. Kung, L. Jr, Treacher, R.J., Nauman, G.A., Smagala, A.M., Endres, K.M. and Cohen, M.A. 2000. The effect of treating forages with fibrolytic enzymes on its nutritive value and lactation performance of dairy cows. J Journal of Dairy Science 83:115-122. Lewis, G.E., Sanchez, W.K., Hunt, C.W., Guy, M.A., Pritchard, G.T., Swanson, B.I. and Treacher, R.J. 1999. Effect of direct-fed fibrolytic enzymes on the lactational performance of dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 82:611-617.
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14
Prebiotics for Improving Gut Health and Production in Dairy Animals
A.K. Samanta, A.P. Kolte, S. Senani and A. Dhali National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
The livestock industry has witnessed immense development in nutritional science during the last century which gave birth to the concept of balanced diet following identification of the essential nutrients for supporting growth, development, production in addition to the prevention of deficiency symptoms. Research efforts during the past decades resulted in the formulation of feeding standards for different species, breeds, and production levels across the world to maximize animal production as well as to ensure higher returns from livestock enterprises. For ruminants, a balanced diet could be defined as an appropriate mixture of roughage and concentrate in the form of mash or block capable of fulfilling the basic requirements of nutrients needed to support maintenance, growth and production of animals. Nowadays, with changing lifestyle the consumer demands and requirement have drastically altered into residue-free livestock products. Further a ban has been imposed towards feed application of antibiotics in livestock diets in several countries since 2006. As a result, the gastrointestinal tract of the livestock will be under stress following exposure to the huge population of disease causing microflora. This has created a worldwide surge for suitable alternatives that could act as gastrointestinal health guards after considering the residue problems and environmental safety. Under such scenario, prebiotics seem to be the possible alternatives for looking after the gastrointestinal health vis--vis livestock productivity. The addition of prebiotics in the diets of animals is a relatively recent endeavor, and preliminary studies are very encouraging (Samanta et al., 2007). Although the effect of most functional foods targeted only one or a limited number of functions, the prebiotics target a range of different physiological functions starting from bowel performance and colonic microflora activities to mineral absorption, lipid homeostasis and immunity.
Gastrointestinal microflora
Based on the occurrence of microbial habitat in the gastrointestinal tract, all the ruminants and pseudoruminants belong to twine gut fermenters. The GI tract of ruminants is featured with two microbial habitats, i.e. foregut (rumen, reticulum and omasum) and hindgut (caecum). The presence of the foregut with enormous
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capacity to house diverse categories of microflora provide the edge to ruminant animals over the non-ruminants for consumption and dependence on lignocellulosic biomass to obtain their energy requirements through volatile fatty acids (viz. acetate, propionate, butyrate, etc.) generated from the degradation and anaerobic 10 12 4 fermentation of fibrous materials. It is estimated that ruminal fluids contain (number/ml) 10to 10 bacteria, 10 6 8 9 2 4 to 10 protozoa, 10 to 10 archea, 10 to 10 fungi in addition to yeast, phage, etc. (Samanta and Walli, 1994, Samanta et al., 2010). By virtue of unique environment available in terms of nutrients, pH, interaction, temperature, crosstalk in the gastrointestinal tract, both beneficial and harmful microflora get niche for their growth and multiplication. The complete development of gastrointestinal tract and immunological system takes place only after the establishment of gut microflora indicating the absence of signals within the vertebrate's genome to carry out complete development of either gastrointestinal tract or immune system.
Prebiotics
Prebiotics are a group of bio-molecules grouped together by virtue of their capability to promote the growth and multiplication of specific beneficial gut microflora. Ban on the use of antibiotics and hormones as feed additives, consumer's awareness, strict quality control measures are the driving factors for research and development in the areas of functional food, especially the prebiotic oligosaccharides. Although the concept of functional foods has been introduced a long time ago by great ancient philosopher Hippocrates Let food be thy medicine, scientific evidence started to support the above principle only recently through the application of prebiotics for modulating the gut microflora pertaining to diverse physiological functions. The term Prebiotics came into light only recently and is coined by Gibson and Roberfroid (1995), who exchanged pro to pre, which means before or for. Therefore, prebiotics may be defined as non-digestible food ingredients that beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth and or activity of one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon (Gibson and Roberfroid, 1995).
Characteristics of prebiotics
Originally, the concept of prebiotics aroused after keeping in mind the gut ecology of human beings (Gibson and Roberfroid, 1995). Therefore, criteria set to qualify a biomolecule as prebiotic may not be the same as it was proposed by earlier researchers. Hence criteria (Samanta et la., 2007) for a compound to become a prebiotic in livestock are as follows: Indigestibility by animal's own gastric or pancreatic enzymes. Selectively utilized by so-called beneficial gut microflora. Plant source or produced by microbial enzymes. Non-absorption from the epithelial surface of gastrointestinal tract. Protects structural and functional integrity while passing through either acidic or alkaline pH of gastrointestinal tract. Exhibit its potentiality even at minute concentration. Remains intact while undergoing physical action of the digestion process, i.e. mastication, chewing, mixing with several fluids, etc. Presence of chemicals bonds that is inaccessible to harmful gut microflora. No residue problems in livestock or their products.
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Non-carcinogenic. Its fermentation should not lead to generate metabolite of toxic nature. Easy to mix with other feed ingredients or micronutrient mixture.
Prebiotic compounds
Owing to the global concerns for residues, particularly antibiotics, intense research has begun around the world to find out suitable alternatives to protect the gastrointestinal tract of livestock from the clutches harmful bacteria as well as to maintain the supply of quality livestock products. This resulted in the identification of several prebiotics including fructooligosaccharides, inulin, galactooligosaccharides, xylooligosaccharides, pectic oligosaccharides, soya-oligosaccharides, mannan-oligosaccharides (Samanta et al., 2010). Amongst those some are already entered into the market to cater the needs of both livestock and human, and some are at laboratory stage for getting their final modification to enter industrial scale of production. Recently several agricultural byproducts and residues have been identified to produce xylooligosaccharides both by chemically (Samanta et al., 2012) and enzymatically (Samanta et al., 2012a, Jayapal et al., 2012).
Prebiotics on ruminants
Presently frugal information is available on the effects of prebiotic in ruminant animals. All the hemicelluloses degrading bacteria of the rumen are capable to utilize xylooligosaccharides as a growth substrate. These are Butyrovibrio fibrisolvens, Eubacterium ruminantium, Ruminococcus albus, etc. The rumen pH remained unchanged (6.7) when prebiotic was fed to Holstein cows maintained on orchard grass silage or alfalfa silage (Santoso et al., 2003). In ruminant species, the above pH (6.6 to 6.8) is ideal for growth and multiplication of useful plant biomolecules degrading bacteria (Samanta et al., 2003). The rumen ammonia nitrogen concentration was slightly lower in prebiotics supplemented Holstein cows and steers, which might be due to the utilization of ammonia for microbial protein synthesis in the rumen. Lower rumen ammonia nitrogen concentration in sheep was also observed as a result of prebiotic administration, which may be due to the suppression of ammonia producing bacteria (Mwenya et al., 2004). Dry matter intake, nutrient digestibility is as such not affected by prebiotic supplementation but showed higher nitrogen retention owing to increased microbial protein synthesis in the rumen (Santoso et al., 2003). Inclusion of inulin in the milk replacer of preruminant calves leads to a significantly higher live weight gains, better feces consistency (Webb et al., 1992). It is postulated that increase in body weight might be ascribed due to increased fermentation at the small intestine followed by increased flow of microbial nitrogen at large intestine, stable microflora composition at rumen, small and large intestine of calves.
Conclusion
For several decades, antibiotics, and chemotherapeutic agents in a prophylactic dose were being used in livestock feed to improve their productivity and to ensure higher economic returns from enhanced productivity as well as from reduced cost on veterinary medicines. Following a ban over the application of antibiotics in the diet of livestock, livestock managers are now looking towards ecological feed additives. At the same time, increasing consumer awareness for health and nutritional issues makes the emerging market for prebiotics very promising. However, till date, the product cost of prebiotics is very high and beyond the reach of common livestock farmers. At the same time, there is an urgent need of scientific research to establish the efficacy of prebiotics in routine diets of livestock and to develop cost effective processes for prebiotic production at the industrial scale.
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References
Gibson, G.R. and Roberfroid, M.B. 1995. Dietary modulation of the human colonic microbiota: introducing the concept of prebiotics. Journal of Nutrition 125: 1401-1412. Jayapal Natasha, Samanta, A.K., Kolte, A. P., Senani, S., Sridhar, M., Suresh, K.P. and Sampath, KT. 2013. Value addition to sugarcane bagasse: xylan extraction and its process optimization for xylooligosaccharides production. Industrial Crops and Products. 42:14-24 Mwenya, B., Santoso, B., Sar, C., Gamo, Y., Kobayashi, T., Arai, I. and Takahashi, J. 2004. Effects of including beta 1, 4galactooligosaccharides, lactic acid bacteria or yeasts culture on methanogenesis as well as energy and nitrogen metabolism in sheep. Animal Feed Science and Technology 115: 313-326. Samanta, A.K. and Walli, T.K. 1994. Rumen anaerobic fungi and their role on fiber degradation. Indian Journal of Dairy Science 48: 179 184 Samanta, A.K., Senani, S., Kolte, A.P., Sridhar, M. and Jayapal, Natasha. 2010. Application of prebiotics in poultry. Agrovet Buzz, 3: 38-42.
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15
Probiotics for Enhancing Performance in Dairy Cattle
N. M. Soren, P. K. Malik, M. Chandrashekaraiah, S. B. N. Rao, A. Thulasi and S. Jash National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Introduction
The discovery and development of antibiotics have led to dramatic improvements in the ability to treat infectious diseases and considerable increase in food-animal production. In the recent years, there is an increase concern about antibiotic-resistant pathogens in our food, environment, and animal products due to indiscriminate use of chemical feed additives (antimicrobial agents, antibiotics, etc.) as livestock growth promoters/feed supplements. To deal with this important issue, scientists, health specialists, and food-animal producers are searching for alternatives to conventional antibiotics to ensure hygienic and safety animal products for human consumption. Probiotics can serve as an alternative to such agents for enhancing livestock production, especially from ruminants. The concept of probiotic was introduced by Metchnikoff in 1908, where he observed the long life of Bulgarian farmers, who consumed fermented milk foods. He suggested that lactobacilli might counteract the putrefactive effects of gastrointestinal metabolism. The term 'probiotics' is defined as 'a live microbial feed supplement that may beneficially affect the host animal upon ingestion by improving its intestinal microbial balance' (Fuller, 1989). Probiotics are living microorganisms that confer health benefits to the host when administered in adequate amounts. The term probiotic describes viable microbial cultures, culture extracts, enzyme preparations, or various combinations of these. Common probiotic microorganism like lactobacilli and bifidobacteria are members of the resident microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants, other less conventional genuses like Saccharomyces, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Pediococcus, Leuconostoc and Propionibacterium have also been considered. The beneficial effect of probiotics in ruminants includes improving growth rate, higher feed conversion efficiency, lower incidence of neonatal diarrhoea, increased mucosal immunity and gut health, early rumen development. Key objectives of feeding probiotics to animals are to improve the production and health, to prevent diseases, to minimize food-borne illness and antibiotic resistance in humans and to stop/reduce shedding of
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pathogenic bacteria. The beneficial effects are not always consistent in ruminant species and may vary depending on the large number of factors. A concerted effort has been made throughout this chapter to throw some light on probiotic microorganism, their mode of action, beneficial effects on health and production and other effects in dairy cattle.
Microorganism used as probiotics in ruminants

The probiotics microorganisms most frequently used in farm animals belong to the group of lactic acid producing bacteria like Aerococcus, Atopobium, Bifidobacteirum, Brochothrix, Carnobacterium, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, Weissella sp. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are Gram positive, anaerobic, catalase-negative; they may be either coccus or bacillus or coccobacillus. The genus Bifidobacterium includes 32 species, and most of them are very similar in their genetic makeup. The organisms isolated from pigs, and cattle have been developed as probiotics for animal use. Moreover, the majority of the bifidobacterial species are host specific, and it is recommended that the bifidobacteria strains use as probiotics should originally be isolated from the same species as the intended use, so as to have an enhanced chance of survival (Vlkov et al., 2009). The genus Bacillus is the only probiotic organism that can form spores, thereby allowing these strains to be used in adverse conditions, mainly at high temperature. Some species of Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus cereus are Gram positive and rod-shaped bacteria. Enterococcus species are Gram-positive bacteria, facultative anaerobic cocci that occur singly, in pairs or in chains. They are commensal micro-organisms that colonize in the gastrointestinal tract of both humans and animals and are also found in several different food sources, such as meats, milk and cheese. Some Propionibacteria is naturally found in high numbers in the rumen of animals fed forage and medium concentrate diets. These organisms translate lactate and glucose to acetate and propionate. Propionibacteria may be beneficial if inoculated into the rumen (Kung et al., 1991) because higher concentrations of ruminal propionate would be absorbed into the blood and converted to glucose by the liver of the host animal. Yeasts are unicellular microorganisms, aerobic in nature, have the capacity to survive in several mediums and have a great spectrum of pH tolerance, but cannot survive for long in an anaerobic environment such as the rumen. Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been considered as the promising probiotic organism for ruminants and have been reported to enhance nutrient utilization in many of the studies. As yeast is aerobic in 5 nature, they have to be supplied continuously in feeds to reach the minimum effective concentration (10cfu/g rumen content) in the rumen. Yeast cells in the rumen use the traces of existing oxygen on the surfaces of freshly ingested feed to maintain their metabolic activity for a few hours. This is why yeast cells are more abundant in the solid matrix than in the liquid phase of rumen digesta (Jouany et al., 1991). This oxygen scavenging property of yeast has a synergistic effect on the growth of anaerobic cellulolytic bacteria, stimulates their attachment to cellulose particles, increases the initial rate of cellulolysis and consequently, improves performance of ruminants. Common microorganism used as probiotics for ruminants are summarized in Table 1.
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Table 1. Common microorganism used as probiotics for ruminants

Genus Lactic acid producing bacteria Lactobacillus Species
L. acidophilus L. plantarum L. casei L. gallinarum L. salivarius L. reuteri L. bulgaricus B. pseudolongum B. thermophilium B. longum B. lactis E. faecium E. faecalis S. bovis S. faecium
Bifidobacterium
Enterococcus Streptococcus Lactic acid utilizing bacteria Megasphaera Propionibacterium
M. elsdenii P. shermanii P. freudenreichii P. acidipropionici P. jensenii
Other bacteria Prevotella Bacillus P. bryantii B. subtilis B. lichenuformis B. coagulans S. cerevisiae S. boulardii A. oryzae A. niger
Yeast Saccharomyces Fungi Aspergillus
In addition to yeast culture, fungi (Aspergillus oryzae) have also been widely used as probiotics to improve the production of dairy animals. Aspergillus oryzae has apparently been an important part of oriental food production for centuries and is now used for the production of many different oriental foods. Potential uses of the fungi include fermentations of numerous enzymes, e.g., amylase, protease, B-galactosidase, lipase,
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and cellulase, and organic compounds such as glutamic acid. Its use as probiotics in farm animals has mostly been in combination with yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other bacterial species. Different species in the genus Aspergillus may give effects comparable to A. oryzae. Aspergillus niger was at least as effective as A. oryzae in enhancing nutrient digestion in cows (Campos et al., 1990).
Mechanism of action of probiotics in ruminants Yeast probiotics

A number of mechanisms have been stated to explain changes in ruminal fermentations and improvement in performance when ruminants are fed yeast-based probiotics (Figure 1). One fundamental fact about yeasts is being aerobic; they cannot survive for long in an anaerobic environment such as the rumen and to exhibit the beneficial effects they must be supplied continuously in the feeds to reach optimum concentration in the rumen. The yeast cells present in the rumen use the traces of available oxygen on the surfaces of freshly ingested feed to maintain their metabolic activity for a few hours, and this is the reason why yeast cells are more abundant in the solid matrix than in the liquid phase of rumen digesta (Jouany et al., 1991).
Figure 1. Mode of action of yeast in ruminants
Bacterial probiotics
Probiotics have been used in livestock as growth promoters for quite some time due to limited use of antibiotics or anti-microbials, as they are banned in many countries. Inconsistent response to feeding of bacterial probiotics or direct fed microbials (DFM) in ruminant production systems has been widely observed; therefore, it accentuates the need for greater understanding of underlying mechanisms of probiotic action in the body. Before going into the detail of mechanisms involved, some important points need to be considered so that probiotics are efficacious in the animal system. These included non-pathogenicity (the organism should be
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safe safety), survival through regions of the gut (saliva, gastric, and bile), specificity to the host, and genetic stability. In many of the studies, the use of non host-specific species and/or strains might be the reason why there was no response to bacterial probiotics/ DFM. If these conditions are met, bacterial probiotics can to modify the balance of intestinal microorganisms, adhere to intestinal mucosa and prevent pathogen adherence or activation, influence gut permeability, and modulate immune function (Salimen et al., 1996; Soren et al., 2011). In general bacterial probiotics acts by the following ways: a. Competition for adhesion/ attachment sites b. c. d. Production of anti-microbial/ anti-bacterial substances Immune modulation Inhibition of pathogenic bacteria
e. Competition for nutrients
Fungal probiotics
The precise mode of action of fungal probiotics has received less attention than yeast probiotics. As both yeasts and fungi are eukaryotic organism, they share some of the common mechanism. Common fungi species used as probiotics in ruminants are Aspergillus oryzae (AO) and A. niger. Fungal cultures mediate their effects via ruminal microbes, primarily bacteria and fungi, but not ciliated protozoa (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Mode of action of fungal probiotics/DFM in ruminants
Probiotics and ruminants performance

Studies on the use of probiotics in ruminants have been reported in both pre-ruminant's life and as well as in adult ruminants, considering both the health status of the animals (reduction of incidence/severity of diarrhoea, carriage of pathogenic microorganisms, immune modulation) and on the production aspect. Mostly, applications have been addressed to cows and calves as well as in small ruminants like lambs, ewes and goats. Neonatal-calf diarrhoea is most frequently encountered in calves, most often caused by pathogenic strain of E. coli, is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in young ruminants. Reduction in the incidence of diarrhoea was obtained in calves fed milk fermented with either mixed Lactic Acid Bacteria, or L. acidophilus 15 or S. cerevisiae NCDC49 (Agarwal et al., 2002). Incorporating live yeasts into the diet (grains) of young calves reduced the number of days with diarrhoea (Galvao et al., 2005). Two different probiotic preparations,
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containing six Lactobacillus spp. of bovine and human origin, were successful in reducing the overall mortality, incidence of diarrhoea and fecal coliforms counts in veal calves (Timmerman et al., 2005). Pathogenic E. coli O157:H17 is undoubtedly the main health threat for ruminants, and cattle are considered the major reservoir (Lejeune and Wetzel, 2007) of the organism thus plays an important role in the epidemiology of human infections (Griffin and Tauxe, 1991). To reduce carriage and shedding of E. coli O157:H7, selected cultures containing generic E. coli strains have been successfully applied to adult cattle. A daily addition of 108of colicin E7-producing E. coli per gram of feed has been shown to reduce the fecal shedding of serotype O157:H7 in cattle (Schamberger et al., 2004). In steers, supplementation of L. acidophilus NP51 in a steam-flaked corn-based finishing diet showed a reduction of E. coli O157 fecal shedding by 57% (Younts-Dahl et al., 2004). With regard to animal performance, improved weight gain and rumen development have been reported in young calves with several bacterial and yeast strains supplementation (Adams et al., 2008; Soren et al., 2013). In dairy ruminants, live yeasts have been shown to improve performance, the most consistent effects being an increase in dry matter intake and milk production (Jouany, 2006; Stella et al., 2007). Supplementation of Aspergillus oryzae and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the diet of dairy cows have increased milk production, milk solids-not-fat (SNF) and tended to increase milk protein percentages (Yu et al., 1997) and this was attributed to the increase numbers of cellulolytic bacteria, fiber degradation and changes in volatile fat acid (VFA) in the rumen (Martin and Nisbet, 1990). Also, in cattle, growth parameters (average daily gain, final weight, intake, feed to gain ratio) have been reported to be improved by daily live yeast supplementation (Lesmeister et al., 2004). Meta-analysis study showed that yeast supplementation in ruminants increased dry milk intake, milk yield, rumen pH, rumen volatile fatty acids' concentration, and organic matter digestibility (Desnoyers et al., 2009). Live yeast stabilizes ruminal pH and decreases the risk of acidosis (Chaucheyras-Durand et al., 2008). Ruminal acidosis continues to be a common digestive disorder in high producing dairy or beef cattle, and the severity of acidosis can vary from acute forms due to excess lactic acid to subacute forms due to the accumulation of VFA (Nagaraja and Titgemeyer, 2007). Acidosis is not only responsible for a decrease in animal performance, but is also often related to health issues such as laminitis, bloat, or liver abscess (Enemark, 2008). Probiotics are bioregulators which can prevent lowering of ruminal pH by increasing the utilization of lactic acid by some ruminal bacteria. Ingestion of high amounts of carbohydrates after parturition often leads to accumulation of high quantities of organic acids in the rumen which exceeds the buffering capacity leading to a drop in pH. Supplementation of probiotic micro-organism Prevotella bryantii (25A) in these animals have been reported to normalize the pH of rumen, thereby reinstalling the normal digestion process in such an animal.
Practical consideration in using probiotics/DFM as feed supplements

Direct-fed microbial products are available in the market in a variety of forms, including powders, pastes, boluses, and capsules. In some applications, DFM may be mixed with feed or administered in the drinking water. Non-hygroscopic whey is often used as a carrier for bacterial DFM and is a good medium to initiate growth. Bacterial DFM pastes are formulated with vegetable oil and inert gelling ingredients. Some yeast and fungal products are formulated with grain by-products like bran (wheat bran, rice bran) as carriers. Some DFM are designed for one-time dosing while other products are designed for feeding daily. Tolerance of DFM microorganisms to heat is important since many feed are pelleted. In general, most yeast, Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Streptococcus are destroyed by heat during pelleting. In contrast, bacilli form stable endospores when conditions for growth are unfavourable and are very resistant to heat, pH,
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moisture and disinfectants. Thus, bacilli are currently used for many applications that require pelleting. Future improvements in strain development may allow use of heat sensitive organisms in pelleted feeds. Viability of DFM products has improved over the past several years, but it is highly advisable to adhere to storage recommendations (products should be kept away from moisture, excess heat, and light). Dose levels of bacterial DFM have varied response in livestock (Soren and Sahoo, 2011). Studies have 6 10 shown that L. acidophilus has been fed at levels ranging from 10 to 10 cfu per animal per day. Hutchenson et al. 7 (1980) suggested that feeding more than 10 cfu per head per day may cause lower nutrient absorption due to overpopulation of the gut. Orr et al. (1988) reported that feeding a continuous high dose of L. acidophilus to feeder calves (1010 cfu per head/day) had no effect on gain and actually reduced feed efficiency when compared 6 to feeding a lower dose (10).
References
Adams, M.C., Luo, J., Rayward, D., King, S., Gibson, R., Moghaddam, G.H. 2008. Selection of a novel direct-fed microbial to enhance weight gain in intensively reared calves. Animal Feed Science and Technology 145, 4152. Agarwal, N., Kamra, D.N., Chaudhary, L.C., Agarwal, L., Sahoo, A., Pathak, N.N. 2002. Microbial status and rumen enzyme profile of crossbred calves on different microbial feed additives. Letters in Applied Microbiology 34, 329336. Campos, M.R., Herrera-Saldana, R., Viniegas, G.G., and Diaz, C.M. 1990. The effect of Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus oryzae (Amaferm) as probiotics on in situ digestibility of a high fibre diet. Journal of Dairy Science 73 (Suppl. 1), 133. Chaucheyras-Durand, F., Walker, N.D., Bachc, A. 2008. Effects of active dry yeasts on the rumen microbial ecosystem: past, present and future. Animal Feed Science and Technology 145, 526. Desnoyers, M., Giger-reverdin, S., Bertin, G., Duvaux-Ponter, C., Sauvant, D. 2009. Meta analysis of the influence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae supplementation on ruminal parameters and milk production of ruminants. Journal of Dairy Science 92, 16201632. Enemark, J.M.D. 2008. The monitoring, prevention and treatment of sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA): a review. The Veterinary Journal 176: 32-43. Fuller, R. 1989. A review: Probiotics in man and animals. Journal of Applied Bacteriology 66:365378. Galvao, K.N., Santos, J.E., Coscioni, A., Villasenor, M., Sischo, W.M., Berge, A.C. 2005. Effect of feeding live yeast products to calves with failure of passive transfer on performance and patterns of antibiotic resistance in fecal Escherichia coli. Reproduction, Nutrition, Development 45, 427440. Griffin, P.M., Tauxe, R.V. 1991. The epidemiology of infections caused by Escherichia coli O157:H7, other enterohemorrhagic E. coli, and the associated hemolytic uremic syndrome. Epidemiology Revue 13, 6098. Hutchenson, D. P., Cole, N. A., Keaton, W., Graham, G., Dunlap, R. and Pitman, K. 1980. The use of living, nonfreeze-dried Lactobacillus acidophilus culture for receiving feedlot calves. Proc. West. Sec. Amer. Soc. Anim. Sci. 31:213. (Abstract). Jouany J.P., Fonty G., Lassalas B., Dore J., Gouet Ph., Bertin G. 1991. Effect of live yeast cultures on feed degradation in the rumen as assessed by in vitro measurements, 21st Biennial Conference on Rumen Function, Chicago, Illinois, USA, Abstract 6, 1991. Jouany, J.P. 2006. Optimizing rumen functions in the close-up transition period and early lactation to drive dry matter intake and energy balance in cows. Animal Reproduction Science 96, 250264. Kung, L., Jr., A. Hession, R. S. Tung, and K. Maciorowski. 1991. Effect of Propionibacterium shermanii on ruminal fermentations. Proc. 21st Biennial Conf. on Rumen Function. Chicago, IL, p 31. (Abstract) Lejeune, J.T., Wetzel, A.N. 2007. Preharvest control of Escherichia coli O157 in cattle. Journal of Animal Science 85, E73E80.
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Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle Lesmeister, K.E., Heinrichs, A.J. and Gabler, M.T. 2004. Effects of supplemental yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) culture on rumen development, growth characteristics, and blood parameters in neonatal dairy calves. Jounal of Dairy Science 87: 1832-1839. Martin, S.A. and Nisbet, D.J. 1990. Effect of Aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract on fermentation of amino acids and starch by mixed ruminal microorganisms in vitro. Journal of Animal Science 68: 2142-2149. Nagaraja, T.G. and Titgemeyer, E.C. 2007. Ruminal acidosis in beef cattle: the current microbiological and nutritional outlook. Journal of Dairy Science 90 (E. suppl.): E17-E38. Orr, C. L., Ware, D. R., Manfredi, E. T. and Hutchenson, D. P. 1988. The effect of continuous feeding of Lactobacillus acidophilus strain BT1386 on gain and feed efficiency of feeder calves. Journal of Animal Science 66(Suppl. 1): 460. (Abstract). Salminen, S., Isolauri, E. and Salimen, E. 1996. Clinical uses of probiotics for stabilizing the gut mucosal barrier: successful strains and future challenges. Antonie Leeuwenhoek 70:347358. Schamberger, G.P., Ronald, L., Phillips, R.L., Jennifer, L., Jacobs, J.L., Diez-Gonzalez, F. 2004. Reduction of Escherichia coli O157:H7 populations in cattle by addition of colicin E7-producing E. coli to feed. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 70, 60536060. Soren, N.M. and Sahoo, A. 2011. Effect of different doses of Lactobacillus acidophilus supplementation on the performance of Malpura lambs. Proc. of National Seminar on Prospects and Retrospect of small ruminant and Rabbit production: Contribution to socio-economic security, 7-9, December, 2011, Jaipur, India. pp.108. Soren, N.M., Sahoo, A., Bhatt, R.S. and Karim, S.A. 2011. Effect of different doses of Lactobacillus acidophilus on haematost biochemical and immune status of growing Malpura lambs on high plane of nutrition. Proc. of 1 IAVNAW Conference. September 24-25, Anjora, Durg, India. pp.91. Soren, N.M., Tripathi, M. K., Bhatt, R.S. and Karim, S. A. 2013. Effect of yeast supplementation on the growth performance of Malpura lambs. Trop Anim Health Prod 45:547554. Stella, A.V., Paratte, R., Valnegri, L., Cigalino, G., Soncini, G., Chevaux, E., Dell'Orto, V., Savoini, G. 2007. Effect of administration of live Saccharomyces cerevisiae on milk production, milk composition, blood metabolites, and faecal flora in early lactating dairy goats. Small Ruminant Research 67, 713. Timmerman, H.M., Mulder, L., Everts, H., van Espen, D.C., van der Wal, E., Klaassen, G., Rouwers, S.M., Hartemink, R., Rombouts, F.M., Beynen, A.C. 2005. Health and growth of veal calves fed milk replacers with or without probiotics. Journal of Dairy Science 88, 21542165. Vlkov E, Grmanov M, Rada V, Homutov I, Dubn S. 2009. Selection of probiotic bifidobacteria for lambs. Czech J. Anim. Sci., 54: 552565. Younts-Dahl, S.M., Galyean, M.L., Lonergan, G.H., Elam, N.A., Brashears, M.M. 2004. Dietary supplementation with LactobacillusPropionibacterium-based direct-fed with microbials and prevalence of Escherichia coli O157 in beef feedlot cattle and on hides at harvest. Journal of Food Protection 67, 889893. Yu, P., Huber, J.T., Theurer, C.B., Chen, K.H., Nussio, L.G. and Wu, Z. 1997. Effect of steam-flaked or steam rolled corn with or without Aspergillus oryzae in the diet on performance of dairy cows fed during hot weather. Journal of Dairy Science 80:32933297.
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16
Quality Control and Safety of Livestock Feeds for Dairy Cattle
S. B. N. Rao, K. S. Prasad, N. M. Soren, M. Chandrasekharaiah and S. Jash National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Quality assurance of animal feeds is one of the biggest challenges faced by livestock feed industry. This has to be tackled at each and every step of feed manufacturing like raw material procurement from reliable sources, storage of raw material; proper manufacturing of feed involves mixing right proportions of feeds as per formulation, proper packing and transportation of feeds to the consumption point. Any deviation in any of the above-mentioned processes might lead to poor quality of feed, which compromises the quality and safety of animal products. Since, adulteration is rampant is retail chains, a suitable regulation needs to be formulated and enforced upon to maintain the quality of animal feeds which in turn can result into safe animal products. Feed quality and safety are interrelated, which determine the quality of animal products for safe human consumption. In the absence of suitable regulation, feed quality is at times very difficult to maintain at retail chains. However, in the organized feed industry, feed quality can be very well controlled by qualified animal nutritionists. In the era of modern agriculture, many synthetic chemicals are added to crops, which leave residues on by-products (Prasad and Chhbra, 2001; Rao, et al., 2011). These in turn can be excreted into milk (Waliszewskia et al., 1996; Banerjee et al., 1997) causing public health problems. Adulteration of feedstuffs is quite rampant in retails chains, and it is practiced in the mostly unorganized sector. Newer adulterants like melamine and cyanuric acid are increasingly threatening the safety of animal products (Suchy et al., 2009). There is an urgent need to develop HACCP concept in feed chains for the benefit of all stakeholders (Hartong 2003) to ensure quality and safety of animal products for human consumption.
Adulteration of feedstuffs
Adulteration is defined as admixture of pure substance with some cheaper and low quality substance. Costly feed ingredients like oil cakes and fish meal are sometimes sprayed with urea to increase their protein content (Table 1). Inedible protein meal or husks are mixed with oil cakes as a spurious practice. Adulteration of feedstuffs is deliberate with malicious intention of making money. Singh and Kundu (2003) collected supplies of concentrate feed ingredients from four different sources and compared with available BIS expand
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specifications, and it was found that most of the feed ingredients were fulfilling BIS requirements, and the study further revealed widespread adulteration in cattle feeds in the market with rice husk as the major adulterant. Analysis of cattle feed samples revealed that 52% samples only met the prescribed standards for calcium and urea. Rest of the samples had higher levels of calcium and urea indicating that lime stone powder and urea were being added deliberately (Punjab Dairy Development Board, Down to Earth). Nalwanga et al., (2009) observed that serious adulteration of feed ingredients used in the fish feed like fish meal, cottonseed cake, sunflower seed cake and maize bran occurred along the supply-chain, i.e. primary outlet, store or shop level in Lake Victoria region of Uganda and Kenya. The main adulterant used in the feeds is probably sand.
Table 1. Common adulterants used in commonly available feedstuffs

Feed Ingredient Groundnut ca ke Mustard cake Soybean meal De-oiled rice bran, wheat bran Fish meal Mineral mixture Molasses Maize grain Rice Kani Adulterant Groundnut husk, urea Argemona maxicana seeds, fibrous feed ingredients, urea Urea, raw soybean Ground rice husk, saw dust Common salt, urea, sand Common salt, marble powder, sand and limestone Water Maize Cobs Marble and grit
Table 2: BIS specifications for Indian feedstuffs
BIS specifications Name of feedstuffs Moisture CP (%Max) (%Min) 8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 10.0 8.0 10.0 10.0 7.0 10.0 8.5 10.0 48.0 43.0 51.0 47.0 23.0 45.0 42.0 45.0 30.0 5.0 6.0 45.0 Fibre (% Max) 8.0 12.0 7.0 10.0 14.0 6.0 16.0 8.0 7.0 3.0 1.75 3.0 Crude fat (%Min) 7.0 6.0 12.0 3.0 5.0 12.0 4.0 Ash (% Max) 6.0 7.0 7.0 5.0 -
Reference AIA (% Max) 2.0 IS: l713-1986 Reaffirmed 2.5 1992 2.5 2.5 1.5 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.5 IS:3441-1982 Reaffirmed 1995 IS:3591-1985 IS:101651982 IS:35921985 IS:4193-1986 IS:95991980 IS:106711983 IS 12829:1989 IS:2152-1972
Decorticated groundnut oil cake grade-1 Decorticated groundnut oil cake grade-2 Solvent extracted groundnut oil cake - grade-1 Solvent extracted groundnut oil cake - grade-2 Solvent extracted coconut oil cake Decorticated sunflower oilcake Solvent extracted cottonseed oil cake Guar meal Rubber seed cake Mango seed kernel Mango seed kernel (solvent extracted) Maize gluten feed - grade I
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Maize gluten feed - grade II Maize germ oil cake Decorticated safflower (Kardi) oil cake Decorticated cottonseed oilcake grade-I Un-decorticated cottonseed oil cake - grade-I Sesame oil cake-expeller hydraulic (high fat) Maize bran - coarse Maize bran - fine Solvent extracted rice bran - grade I Gram chuni
10.0 8.0 10.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0
23.0 18.0 48.0 40.0 24.0 40.0 7.5 14.0 14.0 18.0
8.0 10.0 9.0 12.0 22.0 7.0 18.0 9.5 12.0 3.5
3.0 8.0 7.0 7.0 7.0 8.0 -
3.0 13.0 1.5 1.5 4.5
0.5 0.5 1.5 2.0 2.0 1.5 0.5 0.5 6.0 0.80
(Reaffirmed 1980) IS:2151-1985 IS:25031986 IS:1712-1982
IS:1934-1982 IS:2153-1985 IS:35931979 IS:31611965(Re. 1980) IS:3162-1965 (Re. 1995) IS:36481975 (Re. 1995) IS:3163-1965
Gram husk Rice bran - grade I
10.0 10.0
3.0 13.0
50.0 10.0
15.0
6.0 -
1.0 5.0
Rice polish
10.0
11.0
4.0
15.0
10.0
1.5
Compounded cattle feed for cattle type I* Compounded cattle feed for cattle type II*
11.0
22.0
7.0
3.0
11.0
20.0
12.0
2.5
Urea 1% (max) Urea 1% (max)
3.0
4.0
IS 2052 1979 Reaffirmed 1995
*Salt = 2.0 % maximum; Calcium and available Phosphorus (% max) 0.5 each; vitamin A: 5000 IU/kg The deterioration of the nutritional value of feed ingredients coincides with the composition of the commercial fish feeds being substantially below the values labeled; this also affects the relative costs per unit of nutrient. It is therefore suggested that a set of measures should be developed to assure feed quality. For assuring the quality of feeds, series of strategic measures need to be followed. These include, strategic sampling and regular feed analysis of purchased feed samples or feed ingredients from different locations need to be undertaken. Apart from this, retail feed ingredient dealers need to be monitored so that quality can be maintained.
Melamine and cyanuric acid contamination in feeds

Recently, two important compounds like melamine and cyanuric acid have been abused during food and feed adulteration by increasing the content of nitrogen compounds in these products. Melamine (2,4,6-
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triamino-1,3,5-triazine) is a heterocyclic compound containing six nitrogen atoms and have a very high nitrogen content (66 % N) and is being used as a raw material in manufacture of plastics, pesticides, cleaning agents, fertilizers and many other products, e.g. melamine resin. A hydrolysis product of melamine is cyanuric acid {1,3,5triazine-2,4,6-triol (CNOH)} 3 is a cyclic trimer of hydrocyanic acid (HOCN). It is a white crystalline substance produced by thermal decomposition of urea under defined conditions. It can also be obtained by hydrolysis of melamine. It is a component in various disinfectants, herbicides and bleaching agents. Melamine and cyanuric acid as individual substances do not cause any toxicity but the complex melamine-cyanurate complex, is the cause of human and animal health problems. Feeds with a high nitrogen content and low level of amino acids are to be suspected of adulteration with melamine. Protein concentrates from unknown origin are to be suspected of contamination with melamine. Modern analytical methods are to be used for detection these compounds. Samples are extracted with acetonitrile-water and purified through Solid-Phase-Extraction (SPE) cartridge and subsequent evaporation and injecting into liquid chromatograph coupled with mass detector (LC- MS/MS) (Vail et al., 2007, Yamamoto et al., 2008). A study conducted by Battaglia et al. (2010) revealed that more than 60 % of melamine was transferred to milk within 30 h of melamine ingestion. However, melamine was not detected in milk after seven days of treatment. However, cyanuric acid was not detected in any of the samples indicating no biological conversion of melamine in the cow. However, melamine administration did not affect BUN and milk melamine was transferred mainly to the whey fraction during cheese preparation.
Urea contamination of feedstuffs

Urea is added in concentrate mixtures as a source of non-protein nitrogen for ruminant diets. Urea can be a cheap source of nitrogen but has to be added carefully by following certain nutritional procedures. Addition of urea leads to 2.87 times increase in crude protein percentage of concentrate mixture (one kg of urea yields a protein equivalent of 2.875 kg expands N2 6.25). This is the main reason for urea adulteration in concentrate mixtures by local infamous feed manufacturers. However, BIS specifies only 1 % urea can be added in concentrate mixtures. Urea particles under a light microscope look like needle-shaped particles, which can crumble under pressure. When urea is mixed into cattle feeds it may be difficult to detect it by microscopic means as gets dissolved hence, chemical means is only the solution. The Indian Standard specifies a spectrometric method for the determination of the urea content of animal feeding stuffs (IS 13399:1992).
Silica contamination of feedstuffs

Silica contamination of feedstuffs is deliberate, especially in retail chains. It can be either mixed in dal chunis and brans basically to increase the weight. Fine clay (Multani mitti) can be added while expeller processing of oil seeds. The resultant cake contains more silica when analyzed, and protein content is lower. To compensate the lower protein, urea can be even sprayed leading to multiple adulterations. Acid insoluble ash content of feedstuffs can give fairly good indication of sand/silica contamination in feedstuffs. No systematic reports are available on silica/sand contamination in animal feeds available in the literature.
Quality control and safety of feedstuffs

The objective of quality control of feeds is to ensure that consumer should obtain feeds that are unadulterated and true to their nature, and produce desired results. Quality control is therefore, defined as maintenance of quality at levels and tolerances applicable to the buyer while minimizing the cost of processing.
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In India, the quality control is regulated by a statuary body Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). It was established under BIS Act, 1986. Earlier, Indian Standard Institute (ISI) was regulating the quality control of various commodities. A sub-committee on animal feeds called Animal Feeds Sectional Committee has been specifically set up to check the quality of animal feeds and feed ingredients. The members of the sub-committee are taken among eminent nutritionists from Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes, State Agricultural Universities, feed industry, Government departments having specialization in Animal Nutrition and Feed Technologist concerned with Animal Husbandry Activities. In our country, feedstuffs used for livestock feeding are mostly homegrown, especially straws and fodders. Farmers sometimes feed their livestock with individual ingredients like oil cakes (groundnut cake, GNC/Til cake/Mustard cake), grains (maize, jowar or ragi etc.,) or bran like (wheat bran, rice bran). On the other hand, compound feeds produced in India contain bran, oilcakes (mostly solvent extracted) and limited amount of grains. The BIS has suggested specifications for different feedstuffs to be used in cattle feed as well as compound cattle feed (Table 2) which can provide broad guidelines to feed manufacturers for ensuring quality. BIS also provides guidance for maximum residue limits with regard to pesticide residues that are commonly encountered in feedstuffs (Table 3). Efforts are also on for ascertaining cadmium, lead, mercury and arsenic levels in cattle feeds before it is incorporated in standards. Table 3: Suggested BIS specifications for pesticide residues in animal feedstuffs
Residue Gamma BHC DDT Endosulfan Aldrin Max limit 20 ppb 5 ppb 10 ppb 1 ppb
Feed quality assurance

Chemical analysis is the starting point for determining the nutritive value of feed. The method of chemical analysis that have been described have a history of more than 100 years. Many techniques used to have started in a place called in Weende, a village near the University of Goettingen in Germany. Hence, these methods are described as Weende system of analysis. The principle of analysis is to separate the feed components into groups or fractions in accordance with their feeding value. The various fractions are dry matter, total protein, ether extracts or fat, crude fiber, ash and nitrogen free extract. The proximate analysis suffers from limitations as some components are in excess or missing. The basis of the scheme is that the feedstuffs contain organic and inorganic constituents. The former comprises of carbohydrates, crude fiber and nitrogen free extract, fats and oils, proteins and other nitrogenous compounds along with numerous organic compounds. The inorganic matter comprises ash composed of various minerals, but the proximate analysis gives no indication of the kinds of minerals present. For example, rice straw contains 16 % ash, but 85 % of ash is silica, which is of no value to the animal. The proximate analysis does not include many chemical factors that are important in feeding today. The ash gives no indication of the chemical elements or deficiency or excess of particular essential mineral element. The method also does not include vitamins. To overcome the limitations of proximate analysis, Dr. P. J. Vansoest in 1965 developed a method which makes the use of the concept the dry matter of plant origin consists of two principal parts: Cell wall and Cell contents. Total cell wall constituents composed of cellulose, hemi-cellulose, lignin and silica. The nutrient availability of this fraction depends upon the degree of lignifications of the cell walls. Cell contents represent
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lipids, soluble carbohydrates, most of the proteins and other water soluble substances. The cell walls of feeds of plant origin are not uniformly nutritious, in the sense that their principal components consist of cellulose, hemicelluloses, silica and lignin, etc., singly or in such combinations as nitrogen-hemicellulose or lignocelluloses and differ widely in nutritional availability depending upon the kind and maturity of the plant as well as on the age and species of the animal feed (Goering and VanSoest, 1970 and VanSoest, et al., 1991).
PCR based method for identification of feed adulterants and plant proteins
A simple and rapid PCR-based method, tubulin based polymorphism (TBP), was recently used to detect nearly any plant species in blends of plant origin (Cassaza et al., 2011). The method relies on the presence of intron-specific DNA polymorphisms within plant -tubulin gene family. A simple PCR reaction will be performed using degenerated universal primers designed on the -tubulin exon regions flanking the intron sequences. In this method, plant material will be initially ground with mortar and pestle, with or without the use of liquid nitrogen depending on the type of material (leaves or seeds). The method involves initial processing of feed samples to reduce them to fine flour. Then genomic DNA will be extracted using standard DNA isolation kits. Quality and quantity of DNA will be assessed by agarose gel electrophoresis. 1530 ng of genomic DNA will have to be used typically in any single PCR. Based on characteristic amplification patterns obtained for each analyzed plant species, correct identification will be made possible in mixture of plant origin. The advantage of this method is that the analysis can be performed regardless of any information about the plant genome under investigation, its ease of use, rapidity of execution, reliability and reproducibility; all makes the proposed method (Cassaza et al., 2011) diagnostic technique with a wide range of applications in the context of feed/food quality certification. This can be considered as an advanced technique for confirming the mixtures of feed ingredients specifically being fed for getting a desired product. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) belongs to a group of progressively degenerative neurological diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) associated with a variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. TSEs are fatal diseases caused by prions (proteinaceous infectious particle) and are characterized by an incubation period that may range from several months to several years, depending on the host (Dragon and Arvaham, 2000). Tajima et al. (2002) suggested a method for detection of micro contamination of feed by animal materials like meat and bone meal. Because BSE is spread through animal feed, the main strategy for preventing the establishment and spread of BSE is to prohibit the use of proteins derived from mammalian tissue in feed for ruminant animals. PCR primers for the detection of materials derived from ruminants, pigs, and chickens were newly designed (Tajima et al., 2002) on the basis of sequences of the Art2 short interspersed repetitive element (SINE), PRE-1 SINE, and CR1 long interspersed repetitive element (LINE), respectively. These primers amplified the SINE or LINE from total DNA extracted from the target animals and from test feed containing commercial meat and bone meal (MBM). With the primers, detection of Art2, PRE1, or CR1 in test feed at concentrations of 0.01% MBM or less was possible (Tajima et al., 2002).
Importance of feed regulations

Improper procurement, manufacturing and handling of animal feed can result in the introduction of pathogens and spoilage organisms to animals and the introduction of chemical hazards such as heavy metals, pesticide residues, mycotoxins and of other contaminants, which can affect the safety and suitability animal products. Therefore, proper animal feeding practices should be followed to minimize or prevent the introduction of contaminants through feed or feeding practices. There is an urgent need for development effective regulatory body to maintain quality and safety of feed. Hartog (2003) presented a quality program for
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Dutch animal feed industry with a goal to produce and supply animal feeds, which are safe for consumers of animal products, for the animals and for the environment. It is trustworthy for all stakeholdersthe partners in the chain, the consumers and the legislatorswhich mean to do so demonstrably and transparently. An important part of this program is the GMP standard Animal Feed, which was set up in 1992. This GMP standard contains requirements for the quality system (comparable with ISO 9002) and a number of additional generic control measures for production, trade and transport of animal feed materials focused on additives, undesirable substances and microbiological aspects. Further it also provides the provision for the integration of HACCP in the GMP standard and upstream extension of the quality assurance to all suppliers of feed ingredients. By this way, the quality system of the food-processing industry has been adopted in the animal feed industry. This underlines that the animal feed is part of the food chain, expressed in the slogan 'Feed for Food'. The main points of the program are food safety has a high-priority worldwide, the animal feed industry, including the ingredient suppliers, is part of the food chain and responsible for the safety of its products; demonstrable and transparent quality assurance is a 'license to produce'. Further, it envisages that HACCP is a proactive approach which links the feed chain to the food chain, quality control of raw materials is a mutual concern for suppliers, and the animal feed industry and trade and industry are assuming their responsibility for product safety. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) should also include feeds as on the lines of Food and Drug Administration, USA, for effective regulation of animal feeds.
References
Banerjee, B.D., Zaidi, S.S.A., Pasha, S. T., Rawat, D. S., Koner, B. C. and Hussain, Q.Z. 1997. Levels of HCH residues in human milk samples from Delhi, India, Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 59, 403-406 Battaglia M., Cruywagen C.W., Bertuzzi, T., Gallo, A., Moschini, M., Piva, G. and Masoero F. 2010. Transfer of melamine from feed to milk and from milk to cheese and whey in lactating dairy cows fed single oral doses. Journal of Dairy Science 93: 5338 5347. Casazza, A.P., Gavazzi, F., Mastromauro, F., Gian, S. and Breviario 2011. Certifying the feed to guarantee the quality of traditional food: An easy way to trace plant species in complex mixtures. Food Chemistry 124: 685 691. Down to Earth (2005). Punjab, too much limestone powder and urea: adulteration hardly a bother for feed-makers, published on June, 30. Dragan, M. and Avraham, R. 2000. Detection and analysis of animal materials in food and feed, Journal of Food Protection, 63, 16021609. Goering, H.K., Van Soest, P.J. 1970. Forage fiber analyses (Apparatus, reagents, procedures and some applications). ARS, USDA Handbook 379. Hartog, J.D. 2003. Feed for Food: HACCP in the animal feed industry, Food Control,14, Pages 9599 IS 13399 (1992) Indian Standard : Animal Feeds and Feeding Stuffs Determination of Urea, Bureau of Indian Standards, Manak Bhavan, 9, Bahadur Shar Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002. 1-2. Nalwanga, R., Liti, D.M., Waidbacher, H., Munguti, J., Zollitsch, W.J. 2009. Monitoring the nutritional value of feed components for aquaculture along the supply chain an East African case study. Livestock Research for Rural Development 21: 148. http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd21/9/nalw21148.htm Prasad, K.S.N. and Chhbra, A. 2001. Organo pesticide residues in animal feeds and fodders. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 71: 1178 1180. Rao, S. B.N., Dineshkumar, D., Giridhar, K., Elangovan, A.V. and Sampath, K.T. 2011. Organo-chlorine pesticide residues in feedstuffs, Indian Veterinary Journal, 88: 38-39.
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Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle Singh, R. and Kundu, S.S. 2003. Quality evaluation of some animal feedstuffs available in Haryana. Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology 3: 143 150. Suchy, P., Strakova, E., Herzig, I., Stana, J., Kalusova, R. and Pospichalova, M. 2009. Toxicological risk of melamine and cyanuric acid in food and feed, Interdisciplinary toxicology, 2, 55-59. Tajima, K., Enishi,O., Amari, M., Mitsumori, M., Kajikawa, H., Kurihara, M.,Yanai, S., Matsui, H., Yasue, H., Mitsuhashi, T., Kawashima, T. and Matsumoto, M. 2002. PCR detection of DNAs of animal origin in feed by primers Based on Sequences of Short and Long Interspersed Repetitive Elements, Bioscience Biotechnology Biochemistry, 66: 2247-2250. Vail T., Jones P.R. and Sparkman, O.D. 2008. Rapid and unambiguous identification of melamine in contaminated pet food based on mass spectrometry with four degrees of confirmation. Journal of Analytical Toxicology 31: 304312. Van Soest P.J., Robinson J.B. and Lewis B.A. 1991. Methods for dietary fiber, neutral detergent fiber, and nonstarch polysaccharides in relation to animal nutrition. Journal of Dairy Science 74: 3583 3597. Waliszewskia, S.M., Pardiob, S. V. T., Waliszewskic, K. K. N., Chantiria, P. J. N., Infanzona, R. R. Ma and Rivera, J. 1996. Detection of some organochlorine pesticides in cow's milk, Food Additives and Contaminants, 13, 231-235. Yamamoto M., Uneyama, C., Toda, M., Sasaki, S., Morikawa, K. 2008. Pet food and animal feed contaminated with melamine [Article in Japanese] Shokuhin Eiseigaku Zasshi 49: 13 16. [cited by. Veys P., Baeten V. (2010). New approach for the quantification of processed animal proteins in feed using light microscopy. Food additives and Contaminants 27: 926-934
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17
Rapid Methods of Detection of Mycotoxins in Livestock Feeds
Umaya Suganthi R, Manpal Sridhar, Anjumoni Mech National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Introduction
Mycotoxins are substances produced by various toxigenic species of Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium fungi. Mycotoxin problem is of special significance in developing countries like India because of favorable climatic conditions and poor harvest practices that favor the growth of fungi and its production in feed. Forages and cereals naturally come into contact with fungal spores before, during and after harvest and during transport and storage. Over 400 known mycotoxins have been identified today. However, the mycotoxins that are commonly reported in livestock feeds are aflatoxins, ochratoxins, trichothecenes, and fumonisins.
Mycotoxins of concern
Among the commonly reported toxins, one of the most toxic groups of mycotoxins is the aflatoxins (AFs), produced by Aspergillus fungi. They are produced on a wide variety of substrates, including cereals, nuts, oilseeds, etc. Based on the colour of the fluorescence under ultraviolet light, blue or green and their chromatographic mobility; aflatoxins are grouped into aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), and aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) and aflatoxin G2 (AFG2). Aflatoxins M1 and M2 are the milk-aflatoxins and the metabolites of AFB1 and AFB2 respectively. Among the different types of aflatoxin, the most predominant and toxic is the aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). Ochratoxins are produced by Penicillium and Aspergillus species of fungi. They are cyclic polyketides, and include ochratoxin A (OTA), Ochratoxin B (OTB), ochratoxin C (OTC), ochratoxin (OT), ochratoxin of which the most potent is ochratoxin A. Trichothecens are structurally diverse compounds. Four classes of trichothecenes are recognized. Among them types A and B are highly toxic and are produced by fusarium species. Type A trichothecenes include T-2 toxin, HT-2 and diacetoxyscirpenol and type B trichothecenes include deoxynivalenol (DON) (also known as vomitoxin). Fumonisins are mycotoxins produced by the fungi Fusarium verticillioides and F. proliferatum. They occur worldwide and are found predominantly in maize and in maizebased animal feeds. Of the fumonisins, fumonisin B1 (FB1) is the most common mycotoxins.
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Toxic effects of mycotoxins in livestock

Aflatoxin B1 is rapidly absorbed in the digestive tract and is primarily metabolized by liver enzymes. In ruminants, AFB1 is converted to AFM1, which is then excreted in milk and urine. AFM1 is less toxic than AFB1; however, it has been demonstrated to be a as class1 2B (or probable) human carcinogen. In poultry, AFB1 is metabolized by cytochrome P450 enzymes to AFB1-8, 9-exo-epoxide (AFBO), an electrophilic compound. Aflatoxins affect performance and causes biochemical, hematological, reproductive and pathologic changes. The toxic metabolites of aflatoxin are transferred to meat and egg, make it a concern of health. Ochratoxins are nephrotoxic and cause reduction in weight gain, poor feed conversion, reduced egg production, poor egg shell quality and nephrotoxicity in poultry. Besides poultry, pigs are highly affected by ochratoxin. Trichothecenes are potent inhibitors of eukaryotic protein synthesis.Cells and tissues with a highprotein turnover rate, such as the liver and small intestine are most affected by DON in broilers. The FB1 is neurotoxic, hepatotoxic, and nephrotoxic in animals and cause equine leukoencephalomalacia (ELEM) and porcine pulmonary edema (PPE), in horses and pigs respectively. However, it has very low toxicity for poultry. The carcinogenic and extremely toxic effects of aflatoxin and its metabolites have resulted in aflatoxin being extremely regulated by most countries around the world. The Codex Alimentarius has set 0.05 ppb as the maximum permissible level for AFM1 in milk. In India, according to the Food Safety Standards Regulation Act, 2011 the maximum permissible level for AFM1 is 0.5 ppb.FDA has established action levels for aflatoxins present in human food, animal feeds and feed ingredients. The FDA has set 100ppb as the action level for corn and peanut products intended for breeding beef cattle, breeding swine, or mature poultry. In case of corn, peanut products and other animal feed and feed ingredients, (excluding cottonseed meal) that are intended for consumption by immature animals, the action level is 20ppb.
Detection of Mycotoxins in Livestock Feeds

The present concept of mycotoxin control has come beyond the stage where the control of exposure is of prime concern. Accurate detection of mycotoxin is the first and foremost step in the attempt to control livestock exposure and various advanced techniques are available for detection of aflatoxins and are discussed herewith.
Sampling and extraction of mycotoxins

Detection of mycotoxin begins with sampling, which should be proper. Infection of mycotoxic fungi or the formation of mycotoxin is not uniform and usually is observed in specific pockets in bulk materials or individual grains or nuts. Therefore, to obtain a representative sample, a random sampling followed by sub sampling is recommended. Before collecting the samples, they should be ground to reduce the particulate size as the samples might be taken during different stages viz, growing crops, transport and storage. Samples should be taken from all parts of the lot and proper transportation, and storage facilities should be ensured. After sample collection, mycotoxin present in the samples (eg. feeds) has to be extracted and cleaned up for further detection and quantification. This is because the samples may contain pigments, lipids and various other contaminants, which may interfere with mycotoxin detection. For extraction of aflatoxins, acetonitrile/ water, methanol/water is commonly used. In the recent past, solid phase extraction cartridges and immunoaffinity columns are used for the clean-up and extraction of aflatoxins from feeds.
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Rapid Methods for detection of mycotoxins

The advances in science and technology and the need for accurate detection/quantitation of mycotoxinshas lead to identification of newer and rapid methods. Those include chromatographic techniques, mass spectrometry, ELISA, PCR, biosensors etc.
Chromatography
Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is one of the commonly employed methods to detect mycotoxins. TLC is used for both quantitative and semi-quantitative purposes. It is simple to work, requires less-expensive equipments, has the ability to repeat detection and quantification and offers considerable speed in detection of samples by using UVVis spectral analysis. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is a sophisticated analytical technique that is employed to detect and quantify aflatoxins in feeds due to its high sensitivity and accuracy. Ochratoxin A and aflatoxins exhibit natural fluorescence and hence can be detected directly with UV or fluorescence detectors of HPLC. Recently, Immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) has been combined with online high performance liquid chromatography. The combination of IMER with HPLC combines the selectivity, rapidity and non-destructive, reproducibility of the chromatographic system to the specification and sensitivity of an enzymatic reaction and is highly accurate. Liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometry offers the advantage of physical separation and mass analysis of substances. It is used to determine the multiple mycotoxins, aflatoxins, ochratoxin A and fusarium toxins in maize, aflatoxin M1 in milk and milk powder. Recently, a selective and speedy Liquid Chromatography Mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed to determine the members of tricothecene group (NIV, DON, fusarenon X, 15-acetyldeoand 3-acetonivalenol, T-2 toxin). The liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) method developed in the year 2007 by Cavaliere and co-workers has a quantification limit of 0.1 to 0.6 ppb for aflatoxins. This method is proposed as a confirmatory procedure in establishing non-compliance with EU permitted maximum levels (2 ppb for aflatoxin B1 and 4 ppb for total AFs in corn products). Most mycotoxins are not volatile and therefore, have to be derivatised for analysis using Gas Chromatography (GC). Generally, GC is combined with MS and used. For derivatisation, chemical reactions such as silylation or polyfluoroacylation are employed to obtain a volatile material. However, ochratoxin is not volatile and hence cannot be studied by Gas Chromatography.
Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

Immunoassays such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are considered as rapid and reliable for use in routine detection of mycotoxins. These kits have low sample volume requirements, and less sample extract clean-up procedures compared with conventional methods. Commonly, detection is carried out by colorimetric or fluorimetric endpoint. Additionally, it can be employed with substrates that produce products that can be measured electrochemically using pulse voltametry, cyclic voltametry, chronoamperometry, spectroscopy and linear sweep voltametry. Such methods have been used for quantification of AFM1 in milk, AFB1 in barley, AFB1 in rice and OTA in wheat. An real-time immuno-quantitative PCR (RT-iqPCR) assay that combines ELISA with Polymerase Chain Reaction has been reported by Babu and Muriana (2011) for quantification of aflatoxin B suspended in methanol:water solution. This method was found to be highly 1 sensitive and accurate and can detect AFB1 in the levels of 0.1ppb to 10ppb.
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Bright greenish-yellow fluorescence (BGYF) test

Bright greenish yellow fluorescence test is a qualitative test for the presence of aflatoxins. In this test, when feed samples are examined under UV light (365nm), a characteristic bright greenish yellow fluorescence is produced in damaged kernels. This is due to the presence of aflatoxin or kojic acid produced from A.flavus and A.parasiticus.
Biosensors
Biosensors, as tools have proofed to be able to provide rapid, sensitive and cost effective quantitative methods for on-site testing of mycotoxins. Different types of biosensors are available for mycotoxin detection. An array biosensor can detect the mycotoxins ochratoxin A, fumonisin B, aflatoxin B1 and deoxynivalenol) and is capable of multiple detection of aflatoxins in a short time. Aflatoxins exhibit inhibitory effects on acetylcholinesterase (AchE) and their detection is coupled with the decrease in the activity of AchE and this is measured using a choline oxidase amperometric biosensor. A genetically modified S. cerevisiae strain has been developed for detection of estrogenic mycotoxins. This whole cell-biosensor, within a system provided with Dluciferin substrate and in the presence of estrogenic compound produces firefly luciferase-enzyme and light emission. This emission has been identified for the detection of estrogenic mycotoxins ZEA and its metabolites ZEA, -zearalanol, -zearalanol, - zearalenol and -zearalenol. This method could be fully automated, and the mycotoxins could be detected within three hours. For the detection of AFM1 in milk, a highly sensitive microplate sandwich ELISA integrated with Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) has been developed and is being used to detect ultra trace amount of AFM1.
Biochip technology
MicroSERS is a new biochip technology that couples surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with microscopy. This could enable the identification of cross-reactive toxins. Further, when biochips are incubated in mixtures, contributions of each toxin could be seen in the SERS spectra and this helps to determine the presence of multiple toxins. Aflatoxins B1 and G1 could be detected and individually identified by microSERS technology.
Conclusion
The present concept of mycotoxin control has come beyond the stage where the control of exposure is of prime concern. This could be achieved by understanding the extent of contamination in livestock feeds. This is where detection techniques hold promise. A number of advanced techniques like TLC, HPLC, LC-MS, biosensor assay, biochip technology and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR and iPCR) have been developed for rapid detection of mycotoxins. With the knowledge on these techniques, the quality of livestock and livestock products is expected to improve.
References
Rai, M.K., Bonde, S.R., Ingle Ap, Gade, A.K. 2012. Mycotoxin: rapid detection, differentiation and safety. J Pharm Educ Res 3: Espinosa-Calderon A, Contreras-Medina LM, Munoz-Huerta RF, et al. (2011). Methods for Detection and Quantification of Aflatoxins, Aflatoxins - Detection, Measurement and Control, Dr Irineo Torres-Pacheco (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-711-6, InTech, Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/aflatoxinsdetection-measurement-and-control/methods-for-detection-andquantification-of-aflatoxins
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Nutrition Reproduction Interaction for Sustainable Dairy Production
J. P. Ravindra National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Reproduction happens to be one of the most important aspects in dairy animal production and dairy farmers' profitability. In general a calf a year i.e., a cow giving a calf (approximately) once a year during its reproductive life, is considered essential for dairy production to be profitable. This leads to sustained milk production and also ensures the animal crop for future production. This a calf a year is possible only when the animal's reproductive health is maintained. Under ideal conditions and practice, a calf a year is a possibility. However, various factors- nutrition, housing, breeding and other management conditions, infectious diseases, etc. influence the reproductive efficiency of the animal. Reproductive process is a highly coordinated event. Nutritional status has the deciding role in reproductive processes of the animal. The nutritional status is conveyed to the reproductive axis through mainly the hormonal mediators, although, to some extent, the nutritional components may also directly act. The nutrition -endocrine interactions appear to be too intricate to simply point one nutritional component or one particular hormone to a given event or process in reproduction; it is rather more an interplay of nutrition and several hormones and other factors that ensure that the animal is in proper condition and environment to successfully reproduce. Average dairy herd fertility is declining, with more serves per successful conception, extended calving intervals and increased culling due to failure to re-breed, all adding significant costs to milk production. Genetics, management and nutrition have all contributed to this decline in fertility. Reproductive performance in dairy cattle is influenced by nutritional status and diet composition. Nutritional deficiencies as well as imbalances are frequently implicated as the cause of infertility in cattle. In early lactation, milk yield and, as a result, the demand for energy in dairy cows is high and may not be met by a sufficiently high feed intake. As a consequence body reserve has to be mobilized. The difference between the energy supplied with the feed and what is required for maintenance and milk synthesis is often referred to as the energy balance, and in early lactation is often negative. However, to satisfy their demands for maintenance and production, dairy cows require nutrients both as sources of energy and as resources for milk synthesis. Important energy yielding
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nutrients are fatty acids, glucose and amino acids. These nutrients are either used as fuel or to supply precursors needed for the synthesis of fat, protein, and carbohydrates into body or milk. A distinction between the different energy yielding nutrients is possible by distinguishing them as the group lipogenic, glucogenic, and aminogenic nutrients. Some inter conversion is possible between the three types of nutrients in that part, of the aminogenic energy can also be used to supply glucogenic precursors for the synthesis of glucose in the liver. The demand for milk is expected to increase to about 118 MT by 2020. The current production is about 112 MT. Growth rate in animal production has to increase to meet the additional demand. Less than 1% of milch buffaloes are capable of yielding more than 4000 kgs of milk per lactation. There is a need to increase the population of these elite animals. For this to happen, a good reproductive efficiency is essential in addition to using assisted reproductive technologies/reproductive biotechnology. Low reproductive efficiency decreases herd profitability by: (i) prolonging the calving interval, which results in less milk produced per cow and fewer calves born per year; (ii) increasing culling due to infertility and therefore, increased replacement costs; (iii) increased labour, semen costs and veterinary bills; (iv) an extended low production or dry period can result in over conditioned cows calving in too high a BCS (>3.5) which results in a subsequent prolonged period of negative energy balance and low reproductive efficiency.
Nutrition -endocrine interactions in reproduction

With intensive implementation of programmes like cross breeding and progeny testing, the genetics of dairy cattle improved. However, the conception rate for cows declined from about 60 to 40. First service conception rates have declined over the past 20 to 30 years. The decline in reproductive performance is probably related to the dramatic improvements in milk yield, and the increased nutrient demands placed on the cow. Nutrient requirements for optimal reproductive efficiency in the high producing modern dairy cows are undergoing careful re-evaluation. Reproduction requires not only the presence of certain nutrients but may be influenced by external factors such as disease, mycotoxins and nitrates even though adequate amounts of all known essential nutrients are present in the diet. Adequate nutritional management should start from time of birth itself for the calf to express its reproductive and productive potentials in its future life. It is important to balance protein and energy so that calf grows in stature as well as body weight. Calcium and phosphorus are the primary minerals that require supplementation. However, in certain areas, trace elements such as copper, cobalt, zinc, iodine and selenium must be supplemented because of low levels of these nutrients in the soil and forages. Vitamin A is extremely important for good health and reproduction. Puberty is more dependent upon size than age. The process of reaching puberty results from a chain of events originating in the brain. Increased (high frequency) secretion of GnRH from the hypothalamus leads to increased gonadotropin secretion from the anterior pituitary that in turn increases production of sex steroids by the gonads and increased gametogenesis activity. When the initiation of this chain of events occurs is determined by a variety of inputs routed through brain to the neuroendocrine system that controls GnRH secretion. Some of these signals relate to nutrition and growth while others are external environmental factors. The body is endowed with the ability to sense the nutritional state and to regulate their reproductive development and activity accordingly. Inadequate nutrition retards growth and delays sexual maturation; high nutrition and rapid growth advance maturation. During adulthood, alterations to nutrition may similarly depress
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or enhance reproductive activity. Frequency of LH secretion, a reflection of GnRH secretion, is more highly associated with body size than age. Much recent research has focused on leptin as a regulator of reproductive function and particularly as a mediator of nutritional cues. Leptin is well known as a modulator of feeding behavior with high plasma concentrations known to suppress appetite. Changes in body weight or nutritional status are characterized by alterations in serum levels of many hormones and growth factors that regulate adipocyte function and development, such as insulin, glucocorticoids, GH, IGF-I.
Ovarian follicular activity

There is much evidence that metabolic hormones like GH, insulin, IGF-I and leptin have significant roles in the control of ovarian follicular development and are likely to be important mediators of the effects of dietary intake and or energy balance on fertility. Dietary restriction has been shown to increase blood concentrations of GH in cattle. The main effects of GH on reproduction appear to be operated through its regulatory effects on hepatic IGF-I synthesis and secretion. Dietary restriction and negative energy balance reduce circulating concentrations of Insulin affect LH release and ovarian responsiveness to gonadotropins. Low plasma concentrations of insulin could reduce androgen and oestradiol production and thus compromise the ability of follicles to acquire LH receptors. Long-term moderate or chronic dietary restriction results in a reduction in dominant follicle growth rate, maximum diameter and persistence. Animals become anestrus when they lose on average 22-24% of their initial body weight. Acute dietary restriction to 40% of maintenance requirements rapidly reduces dominant follicle growth rate and maximum diameter and induces anestrus in a high proportion of heifers within13-15 days of dietary restriction. In lactating dairy and beef cows, negative energy balance or reduced dietary intake in the early post-partum period while not affecting the population of small to medium-size follicles, adversely affects the size and ovulatory fate of the dominant follicle. Increased dominant follicle growth rate and maximum diameter are associated with increased peripheral concentrations of IGF-I, pulsatile LH and oestradiol. Direct nutritional effects on ovarian function appear to operate through hepatic rather than follicular regulation of IGF-I and on systemic concentrations of IGF-I BPs and insulin leading to reduced follicular responsiveness and reduced oestradiol production. Indirect nutritional effects are apparently mediated through altering the GnRH pulse generator and in-turn selectively reducing the pulsatile LH secretion. Endogenous opioid peptides, NPY and glucose appear to play a role in the nutritional regulation of GnRH release and in turn pulsatile LH secretion. Chronic nutritional restrictions also affect the growth and functional ability of corpora lutea.
Postpartum fertility
After calving, with a nutritional requirement for milk production, there tends to be an effect on resumption of reproductive activity and cyclicity. The negative energy balance extends for 8-10 weeks. This delays the timing of first ovulation through attenuation of LH pulse frequency and low levels of blood glucose, insulin and IGF-I that collectively limit oestrogen production by dominant follicles. Negative energy balance results in mobilization of adipose tissue and loss of body condition score, which is strongly associated with the length of the postpartum anovulatory period. A low energy level in early puerperium caused a delay in uterine involution and in the onset of ovarian activity. The low-energy balance in the puerperium would prolong the interval from calving to the first insemination and the interval from calving to conception. LH secretion is suppressed until the minimum energy balance is reached, at which time LH pulse frequency increases,
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stimulating first ovulation. Negative energy balance and body condition score loss are related to reduced serum progesterone concentrations subsequently during breeding and to lower pregnancy rates. The metabolic demands of high milk production and associated negative energy balance are known to diminish the quality of oocytes and capability for embryo development. The feeding period of 30 days prepartum and 30-day postpartum is critical for optimum milk yield, health and reproduction in dairy animals. Feeding strategies in the transitional diet (late dry cow period) include high levels of undegraded proteins, and added trace minerals and vitamins. Weight loss must be managed to avoid ketosis and to maintain fertility, by following proper feeding strategies during early period of lactation.
Male Reproduction
Nutrition during calf-hood has a significant bearing on the sexual development and functioning in the adult life. The effects of nutrition are mediated through hormones, and the effects are seen on the hypothalamus-pituitary-testicular axis in secretion of GnRH, LH and testosterone and testicular development. Good nutrition during calf-hood has positive effects on secretion of GnRH, LH, insulin, IGF-I, testosterone, testicular weight and sperm production in mature bulls. Similar to that in female, leptin happens to be one of the important mediators, especially in the process of puberty.
Nutrigenomics
The new era of functional genomics is the direct result of the massive accumulation of information that is resulting from studies of a variety of animals, plant, and microbial genomes. Applications of this new information and the concepts developed from genomic studies promises to revolutionize the way agriculturalists, animal scientists, and nutritionists think about animal production. This new information and technology are particularly well suited for studies of the complex metabolic interactions that dictate fertility and influence reproductive efficiency. Applications of molecular technology will provide new ways to evaluate reproductive potential and the basic physiological mechanisms that limit reproductive performance. These technologies will also provide new tools for managing and monitoring livestock fertility. Nutrigenomics and nutritional genomics are sciences that examine the effects of nutrition on gene expression. These sciences are providing new tools that can be used to more clearly understand how nutritional management can be applied to address disease, performance, and fertility limitation in cattle. Gene expression studies are expected to revolutionize the methods for examining and elucidating the major limitations on fertility and help define nutritional strategies for addressing them.
Further reading
Butler, W.R. and Smith R.D. 1989. Interrelationship between energy balance and postpartum reproductive function in dairy cattle. Journal of Dairy Science 72:767. Guthrie L. D. and West J. W. Nutrition & Reproduction Interactions in Dairy Cattle. The University of Georgia College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences.
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19
Innovative Feeding Management to Reduce Enteric Methane Emission from Ruminants
Raghavendra Bhatta and C. S. Prasad National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Methane is the second major GHG after CO,and it is 23 times more potent than CO 2 2 contributing about 15-20 per cent of the total greenhouse gases. Enteric methane is produced in livestock as a result of microbial fermentation of feed components. Primary digestive microorganisms (bacteria, protozoa and fungi) hydrolyze proteins, starch and plant cell wall polymers into amino acids and sugars. These simple products are then fermented to volatile fatty acids (VFA), hydrogen (H) and carbon dioxide (CO). Acetate, propionate and 2 2 butyrate, which are the major VFA, are then absorbed and utilized by the host animal. Acetate and butyrate production result in CH4production, while propionate formation serves as a competitive pathway for H 2use in the rumen. In addition to the green house effect of methane, it also represents a loss of 8-12% of the gross energy of feed given to the animals. The excreta of animals, if not properly managed also contribute significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG).
Methanogenesis in the rumen
Roughage Methane gas
C6H12O6 + H20 C6H12O6 C6H12O6 + 4H CO2 + 8H
2C2 H4 O2 (acetate) + 2CO2 + 8H C4H8O2 (butyrate) + 2CO2 + 4H 2C3H6O2 (propionate) + 2H20 CH4 + 2H2O
Greenhouse gases allow solar radiation to pass through the earth's atmosphere. But after the earth absorbs part of that radiation, it reflects the rest back. That's where the problem lies. Particles of greenhouse gas absorb the radiation, heating up, and warming the atmosphere. The increasing levels of greenhouse gases are causing too much energy to be trappedthe so-called 'greenhouse effect' (IPCC, 2001).
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Indian scenario
Agriculture and in particular, enteric fermentation in ruminants (predominantly cattle and small ruminants) produces 28 per cent of the total anthropogenic emission of methane (Figure 1). Out of this, 40 per cent is estimated to be the contribution from its 485 million livestock, which amounts to about 10.4 to 10.6 million tons, the major contribution coming from cattle and buffalo and rest from small ruminants.
Strategies for methane reduction Nutritional strategies

Fermentation of cell wall carbohydrates produces more CHthan fermentation of soluble sugars, which 4 produce more CH 4 than fermentation of starch. This is a consequence of decreased rates of ruminal fermentation and passage out of the rumen that favour a higher A: P ratio. On the contrary, high grain diets fed at high intake levels are associated with high rates of ruminal digestion and passage that favour higher propionic acid production. For e.g. when brewer's grain was added to timothy hay (60 parts) and corn (25) based diet, CH 4 output in goats was reduced by 10 percent (Bhatta et al., 2007, 2008).
Feeding oils and fats in the diet

Some of the components of oils have anti-microbial activity and anti-fibrolytic activity and therefore, free oils cannot be fed beyond a certain level. Beauchemin and McGinn (2006) reported that adding canola oil at the rate of 4.6 % of DM intake inhibited methane emission by 32% and decreased methane emissions as a per cent of gross energy intake by 21%.
Diet effect on enteric methane production

Methanogenesis decreases with improving the quality of feed either by increasing the digestibility of lignocellulosic feeds by some chemical (Moss et al., 2000) or microbiological treatment or by replacing these feeds with good-quality concentrate feeds (Cecava et al., 1990). The inhibition in methanogenesis is accompanied with increased propionate levels and decreased acetate to propionate ratios and better feed conversion efficiency. Improved nutritional quality of feed is one such method, which can be used to inhibit methanogenesis. Animals grazing the poor quality pasture will produce the highest amount of methane per unit product (Kirschgessner et al., 1995). The treatment of paddy straw with urea resulted in a significant improvement in digestibility of nutrients and a significant depression in methane generation by the animals. Even the different roughage sources like paddy straw, sugarcane bagasse and wheat straw caused different levels of methane production. Paddy straw supported more methane production than the other two roughage sources tested (Chatterjee et al., 2005). Therefore, proper selection of roughage source in the ration of ruminant may help in reducing methanogenesis to some extent. Methane production in ruminants tends to increase with maturity of forage fed, and CH 4 yield from the ruminal fermentation of legume forages is generally lower than the yield from grass forages.
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Feeding frequency and methane production

Low frequency of feeding increased propionate, reduced acetic acid production and lowered CH 4 production in dairy cows. This was attributed to the lowering of methanogens as a result of high fluctuations in ruminal pH, since low frequency of feeding increase diurnal fluctuations in ruminal pH that can be inhibitory to methanogens. On the other hand, more frequent feeding was shown to increase the A: P ratio (Sutton et al., 1986).
Complete feed blocks/ total mixed rations

Feeding complete feed blocks comprising 70 percent roughage and 30 per cent concentrate ingredients could be an alternate approach as it ensures nutrient balancing leading to better productivity and lowering methane production by 10 per cent. Similar effects have been observed when animals are provided total mixed rations blended with roughage and concentrate feeds. This approach could be best suited under our conditions as it helps in better utilization of unconventional feeds, reduces wastage and helps in lowering methane production.
Manipulating rumen fermentation Use of ionophores

Ionophores are highly lipophilic substances, which are able to shield and delocalize the charge of ions and facilitate their movement across the membranes. Their feeding have been associated with the selective reduction of gram-positive ruminococci, and the proliferation of gram-negative bacteria with the concurrent shift in the fermentation from acetate to propionate and decrease in CH production (Newbold et al., 1988). 4
Removal of protozoa from the rumen- defaunation

Defaunation, which is the partial/total elimination of protozoa from the rumen by dietary or chemical agents, has been shown to reduce ruminal CH 4 production by about 20-50% depending on the diet composition (Itabashi et al., 1994). Protozoa in the rumen are associated with a high proportion of H production, and are 2 closely associated with methanogens by providing a habitat for up to 20 % of rumen methanogens (Newbold et al., 1995a). The reduced ruminal methanogenesis observed with defaunation can be attributed to factors such as a shift of digestion from the rumen to the hindgut (Van Nevel and Demeyer, 1996) or the loss of methanogens associated with protozoa during defaunation (Hegarty et al., 2004). However, this process could lead to reduced digestibility of poor quality roughages not much suitable where agricultural crop residues are the major roughage source like in India.
Feeding of leaves containing secondary metabolites (PSM)

Tannins constitute one of the important secondary metabolites, which has anti-microbial activity and are present widely in different groups of plants. More attention has been paid to condensed tannins in comparison to hydrolysable tannins, perhaps due to lower risk of toxicity. Bhatta et al. (2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, a, b, d, 2013) confirmed that tannins suppress methanogenesis directly through their anti-methanogenic and indirectly through anti-protozoal activities. Samples containing both CT plus HT was more potent in reducing methanogenesis than those containing HT only. This was further confirmed through respiration chamber studies in goats (Bhatta et al., 2010).
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Microbial activity in the rumen may be affected by the use of saponins. The microbial population increased by low saponins supply, but decreased when doses became excessive (Wallace et al., 2002). The protozoal counts in rumen fluid decreased with higher saponin doses like with sarsaponin from Y. schidigera, quillaja saponin (Makkar and Becker, 1996) and with saponin rich plants or fruit pulp (Kamra, 2006). At National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore two objectives are envisaged under the 'Outreach program on methane', first one being the development of a national database on enteric methane emission from Indian livestock and second is the strategy for mitigating enteric methane emission. For the first objective, large database on the methane production potential (MPP) of various feed ingredients and diet combinations have been generated from seven centres of the project. The feed ingredients and diet combinations have been further catalogued based on their MPP. The predictive equations have been developed to estimate MPP based on the nutrient composition. Attempts are also being made to compare the methane emission estimated using sulphur hexafluoride (SF) 6 tracer technique with that of in vitro gas production test (IVGPT) with NDDB, Anand collaboration. For methane mitigation, various tree leaves and medicinal and aromatic plants have been screened to assess their efficacy as methane suppressants. Very promising results of methane suppression were obtained with some of the tested leaves (patented). The data on protozoa count indicated that methane suppression recorded with plant tannins was not primarily due to their defaunation property (Bhatta et al., 2010, Bhatta et al., 2011).
Use of propionate enhancers in the diet

As a result of growing awareness about the threat of microbial resistance to antibiotics, there is an increasing interest in alternatives to antibiotics as growth promoters (Moss et al., 2000). Dicarboxylic acids such as fumaric and malic acids have been studied in vitro as feed additives in ruminant diets to reduce methane emissions. Reducing fumaric acid may provide an alternate electron sink for Hsince H2ions are needed for this 2 reaction.
Removal of methanogens using vaccines

Researchers in CSIRO, Australia have vaccinated sheep with a number of experimental vaccine preparations against methanogens, so that the animals produce antibodies to methanogens. Methane production was reduced between 11 and 23 % in vaccinated sheep, with no long or short term adverse effects. Researchers anticipate that commercial vaccines will allow a 3 % gain in animal productivity and a 20 % reduction in CH4 production. These vaccines were based on the cultivable methanogens. However, the work of Whitford et al. (2001) showed that most ruminal methanogens have not yet been cultivated.
Alternate hydrogen sink

In the gut of termites and rodents, acetogens convert excess H 2 to acetic acid, which is then utilized by the host. However, in the rumen, the number of acetogens is few and cannot compete effectively with methanogens for H 2ions, because they have a lower affinity for H than methanogens (Nollet et al., 1998). 2 Increasing the populations of acetogens through exogenous inoculations into the rumen could be useful for competing against methanogens.
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Grazing management
The major GHG contribution from livestock production is through forage or feed crop production and land use of feed production. Adopting proper pasture management strategies through rotational grazing reduces methane emissions from feed crop production. This also helps to reduce methane emission due to manure storage. Introducing legumes in grassland helps not only in enhancing carbon storage in soils but also reducing enteric methanogenesis.
Conclusions
Methane gas content of the atmosphere is increasing at 1% per annum. To stabilize methane in the atmosphere, global methane production needs to be reduced by 1020%. Large ruminants produce some 1520% of the global production of methane. Ruminants on low quality feeds possibly produce over 75% of the methane from the world's population of ruminants. Supplementation to improve digestive efficiency in these animals could at times halve this methane production per unit of feed consumed. Together with supplementation to improve efficiency of feed utilization and increase product output may thus reduce methane production per unit of milk or meat by a factor of 46. Provided animal numbers in national herds are decreased as demand is met, the production of methane from the large populations of animals fed poor quality forages could be reduced to below 50% and perhaps even to as low as 20 % of its present rate.
References
Bhatta R., Uyeno Y., Tajima K., Takenaka A., Yabumoto Y., Nonaka I., Enishi O., Kurihara M. 2009. Difference in the nature of tannins on in vitro ruminal methane and volatile fatty acid production, and methanogenic archaea and protozoal populations. Journal of Dairy Science 92: 5512-5522 Bhatta R, Saravanan M, Baruah L, Sampath K. T. and Prasad, C. S. 2013. In vitro fermentation profile and methane reduction in ruminal cultures containing secondary plant compounds. Journal of Applied Microbiology doi: 10.1111/jam.12238 Bhatta, R., Prasad, C. S. and Sampath, K. T. 2010. Greenhouse gas emission by sheep and goats, its effect on global warming and ameliorative measures in 'Climate Change & Stress management: sheep and goat production', edited by SA Karim, A Joshi, SK Sankhyan, AK Shinde, DB Shakyawar, SMK Naqvi and BN Tripathi. Satish Serial Publishing House, New Delhi pp 153-169. Bhatta R., Enishi O., Kurihara M. 2006a. Measurement of methane production from ruminants-a review. Asian Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences, 20: 1305-1318 Bhatta R., Enishi O., Takusari N., Higuchi K., Nonaka I., Kurihara M. 2008. Diet effects on methane production by goats and a comparison between measurement methodologies Journal of Agricultural Science (Cambridge) 146: 705-715 Bhatta,R., Saravanan, M., Baruah, L. and Sampath, K. T. 2012d. Phenolic composition, fermentation profile, protozoa population and methane production from sheanut (Butryospermum parkii) byproducts in vitro. Asian Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 25: 1389-1394 Bhatta R., Enishi O., Yabumoto Y., Nonaka I., Takusari N., Higuchi K., Tajima K., Kurihara M. 2013. Methane reduction and energy partitioning in goats fed two concentrations of tannin from Mimosa sp. Journal of Agricultural Science (Cambridge) 151: 119-128 Bhatta R., Saravanan S., Baruah L., Sampath K.T. 2012b. Nutrient content, in vitro ruminal fermentation characteristics and methane reduction potential of tropical tannin-containing leaves. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 92:2929-2935 Bhatta R., Tajima K., Kurihara M. 2006b. Influence of temperature and pH on fermentation pattern and methane production in the rumen simulating fermenter (RUSITEC). Asian Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences, 19:376-380
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Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle Bhatta R., Tajima K., Takusari N., Higuchi K., Enishi O., Kurihara M. 2007. Comparison of in vivo and in vitro techniques for methane production from ruminant diets. Asian Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences, 20: 1049-1056 Bhatta R., Tajima K., Takusari N., Higuchi K., Enishi O., Kurihara M. (2005). Comparison of sulfur hexafluoride tracer technique, rumen simulation technique and in vitro gas production techniques for methane production from ruminant feeds. In 'Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture: An update. (Ed. Soliva CR, Takahashi J, and Kreuzer M), pp 419-421 (Elsevier International Congress Series 1293, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Bhatta R., Tajima K., Uyeno Y., Enishi O., Kurihara M. 2006c. Effect of plant extracts as natural source of tannins on methane production in vitro, International Workshop on Monsoon Asia Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions (MAGE), March 7-9, Tsukuba, Japan, pp 67 Bhatta R., Baruah L., Saravanan S., Sampath K.T. 2010. Efficacy of plant phenolics from medicinal and aromatic plants on rumen fermentation, protozoal population and methanogenesis in vitro, Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture Conference (GGAA 2010) at Banff, Canada pp. 87 Bhatta R., Baruah L., Saravanan S., Sampath K.T. 2012a. Effect of medicinal and aromatic plants on rumen fermentation, protozoa population and methanogenesis in vitro. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition. 97446-456. Boadi D., Benchaar C., Chiquette J., Masse D. 2004. Mitigation strategies to reduce enteric methane emissions from dairy cows: update review. Canadian Journal of Animal Science. 84: 319-335. Bolle HJ, Seiler W and Bolin B. 1986. Other greenhouse gases and aerosols; assessing their role for atmospheric radiative transfer. In: The Greenhouse Effect, Climatic change and Ecosystems Editors: B. Bolin, B.R. Doos, B. Warrick and D. Jager John Wiley and Sons: New York Cesava M.J., Merchen N.R., Gay L.C., Berger L.L. 1990. Composition of ruminal bacteria harvested from steers as influenced by dietary energy level, feeding frequency and isolation techniques. Journal of Dairy Science. 73: 2480-2488. Chynoweth, 1996. Environmental impact of biomethanogenesis, Monitoring and Assessment 42:3-18, 1996. 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Crutzen PJ, Aselmann I and Seiler W. 1986. Methane production by domestic animals, wild ruminants, other herbivorious fauna, and humans. Tellus 38B: 271284 Hegarty R S, and R Gerdes. 1998. Hydrogen production and transfer in the rumen. Rec. Adv. Anim. Nutr. 12:3744. Hegarty R.S., Goopy J.P., Herd R.M., McCorkell B. 2007. Cattle selected for lower residual feed intake have reduced daily methane production. Journal of Animal Science, 85: 1479-1486 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, January 2001, IPCC. 2001. Technical summary: contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report. Itabashi H., Washio Y., Takenaka A., Oda S., Ishibashi J. 1994. Effects of controlled fauna on methanogenesis, fibre digestion and rate of growth of calves. Proceedings of the Society of Nutrition and Physiology 3: 179 184. Johnson K.A., Huyler M., Westberg H., Lamb B., Zimmerman P. 1994. Measurement of methane emissions from ruminant livestock using a SF6 tracer technique. Environmental Science and Technology 28: 359 362. Kamra D.N., Patra A.K., Chatterjee P.N., Kumar R., Agarwal N., Chaudhary L.C. 2008. Effect of plant extract on methanogenesis and microbial profile of the rumen of buffalo: a brief overview. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 48: 175-178 Kirchgessner C.U., Patil C.K., Evans J.W., Cuomo C.A., Fried L.M., Carter T., Oettinger M.A. Brown J.M. 1995. DNA-dependent kinase (p350) as a candidate gene for the murine SCID defect. Science 267: 1178-1183. Leng RA. 1991. Factors affecting the utilization of 'poor quality' forages by ruminants particularly under tropical conditions. Nutr. Res. Rev. Vol. 3.
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Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle Makkar H.P.S., Becker K. 1996 Nutritional value and antinutritional components of whole and ethanol extracted Moringa oliefera leaves. Animal Feed Science Technology 63: 211 228. Newbold C.J., El Hassan S.M., Wang J., Ortega M.E., Wallace R. J. 1997. Influence of foliage from African multipurpose tree on activity of rumen protozoa and bacteria. British Journal of Nutrition 78: 237 249. Pinares-Patino CS, Waghorn GC, Machmuller A, Vlaming B, Molano G, Cavanagh A and Clark H. 2007. Canadian Journal of Animal Science, 87: 601-613 Prasad, C. S. and Bhatta. R. 2009. Climate change - Adaptation and mitigation strategies for environmentally sustainable livestock production at 18th Annual Conference of the society of Animal Physiologists of India 26-28 February, 2009. pp 123-132 Singh G P. 1997. Effect of greenhouse gases on climate change and Indian ruminant livestock. Current Science, 72: 441-446 Sutton J.D., Hart I.C., Brostel W.H., Elliot R.J., Sehuller E. 1986. Influence of plane of nutrition and diet composition on rumen fermentation and energy utilization by dairy cows British Journal of Nutrition 56: 181 192. Van Nevel C.J., Demeyer D.I. 1996. Effect of pH on biohydrogenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids and their Ca-salts by rumen microorganisms in vitro. Archives of Animal Nutrition. 49:151 157.
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20
Management and Amelioration of Stress in High Producing Dairy Cattle
V. Sejian, A. Mech, A. Mishra, A. Dhali, A. P. Kolte and J. P. Ravindra National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Introduction
Stress due to stressful environmental condition, especially during peak summers affects the production ability of dairy animals, and this situation is further aggravated by humid climate. Extent of heat stress can be measured by the temperature-humidity-index. A THI level above 75 is considered stressful for dairy animals and requires urgent management. Management and nutritional interventions are some of the vital tools to combat the heat stress situation. Reducing environmental stresses on livestock requires a multi-disciplinary approach with emphasis on animal nutrition, housing and animal health. Some of the biotechnological options may also be used to reduce thermal stress. It is important to understand the livestock responses to environment, analyze them, in order to design modifications of nutritional and environmental management thereby improving animal comfort and performance. So a range of technologies are needed, to match the different economic and other needs of smallholders.
Economic Loss
According to an estimate, India is currently losing nearly two percent of total milk production among cattle and buffaloes, i.e., 1.8 million tons at the national level due to rise in heat stress among cattle and buffaloes because of the global warming. This loss in terms of cash is estimated to a whopping Rs 2661 crores. Among different states, UP (with high THI index) loses 25.4 million tons milk per year followed by Tamil Nadu (23.8 million tons), Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana.
Management strategies to combat heat stress Animal shelter design for comfort
Physical modification of the environment is based on two basic concept of protecting the livestock from the factors contributing to heat stress, and enhancing evaporative heat loss by the animal. The different
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environmental modification systems have been classified according to the different impact they can have on animals' productive performance. The first are those that help decrease the heat gain by radiation interception. Among the latter, there is a range that covers from the forced ventilation and sprinkling of water, each separately, to combinations of both systems, including evaporative cooling, and even air conditioning.
Ensuring proper ventilation

Ventilation systems in livestock housing serve an important function, maintaining a comfortable animal environment. Ventilation systems continuously remove the heat, moisture, and odors created by livestock, and replenish the oxygen supply by bringing in drier, cooler outside air. Adequate air exchange also removes gases such as ammonia (NH), can be harmful to both animal and 4 hydrogen sulfide (HS), 2 and methane (CH) which 4 operator health.
Using shades
The most obvious environmental modification to reduce the thermal stress of livestock during hot climate condition is the use of proper shade. A properly designed shading structure provides the most adequate protection to the livestock not only in hot summer but also in winter. For tropical climate condition, loose housing system is considered most appropriate. The longer side of the animal shelter should have an east-west orientation. This reduces the amount of direct sunlight shining on side walls or entering the house. In addition to this, roof can be extended with shading material, and the vertical shading moved to the outside of the roof. Such devices give much better protection from the direct solar radiation and sun. The west side of the shed can also be protected similarly and fitted with side covers and gunny bags or curtains. The height of the shed structure should be greater than 2.4 meters tall to allow sufficient air movement under shade. However, tall structures (more than 305meters high) are not economically viable.
Increasing air flow

In an animal shed air movement should be free and in all sections of shed. To increase air flow two main approaches may be used. One is to install large fans so that air movement is increased, and the second is to open the side of the shed. In many cases walls of the shed may be made partially of concrete. In such situation, opening the lower level of the barn to increase air flow is not an option, so the addition of fans is essential to increase air circulation. In shed where sheet matel is used for the walls, it may be practical to remove the side and install netting over these areas. The netting can be raised to increase air flow during the summer and lowered during the winter. Increasing the roof venting is yet another option that may be used for animal sheds. Another approach which can be used, similar to housing used for human, is the double-wall approach. In this, extra wall layer at either end of shed is constructed, and the outer layer is kept 10 cm away from the inside wall, with vertical openings at both ends. The bottom opening allows cold air to enter, and the upper opening allows hot air to exit. The 10 cm of air between the two walls provides a thermal barrier to prevent conductive thermal energy from entering the animal house. Double wall approach is an effective and proven technology in structural design for increasing or reducing the temperature.
Using Sprinklers
Some studies reported beneficial effects of wetting the animals through sprinklers during periods of high temperature. In Mexico, a region of sub-humid tropical climate, there was a 7% increase in milk production
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in cows sprinkled between 12:00 and 13:00 hours under the shade. Furthermore, positive results were reported in few studies conducted in Missouri when animals were sprinkled between 11:00 and 17:30 during moderate summer. In Israel, when cows were sprinkled for one hour, four times a day, it relieved the stress. In Australia when the cows were watered every time the temperature exceeded 26 C, similar effect was seen. Sprinkling maximizes the amount of heat removed from the animal through evaporative cooling at a reduced water cost. In addition, the ambient air temperature is lowered in the area immediately surrounding the animal, increasing the heat gradient and increasing the effectiveness of non-evaporative cooling mechanism. To achieve adequate heat loss when sprinkling, droplets must wet the hides of the animal as accumulation of water in the hair may increase the humidity around the animal and reduce effective heat loss. High pressure irrigationtype sprinklers can improve inexpensive wetting of animals, especially when coupled with fans, to increase air movement. However, cooled animal have limited ability to adapt to warm condition and may become reliant on sprinkling to keep cool even in milder condition. Cessation of sprinkling during the day on hot days may increase the heat load in cattle, even though ambient temperature and humidity may be decreasing. Altering the microclimate of the sprinkled area helps in improving the well-being of feedlot cattle under the extreme environment conditions by reducing body temperature. Therefore, one point which should be kept in mind while using the evaporative cooling system in a hot and humid subtropical region is that cooling requires the use of forced ventilation.
Forced ventilation using fans

When there is no sufficient natural ventilation, layer of air close to the animal, gets warmer. This slows down the processes of heat dissipation from the surface of the animals to surrounding. The role of fans is to increase heat loss by convection. Fans can reduce the body temperature by 0.3 to 0.4 C, provided that the temperature of the provided air is lower than the surface temperature of the animal. However, fan is not enough to reduce conditions of heat stress in high producing dairy cows in hot weather. However, when working in areas where the humidity is high, consideration should be given that any system that introduces water into the environment may be negative because water will evaporate further increasing the humidity and saturating the air. It is for this reason that systems are designed to combine the forced ventilation with wetting.
Nutritional strategies to combat heat stress Feed requirement

During hot dry summer, there is a decrease in dietary feed intake, which is responsible for the reduced productivity. In this situation, the efficient practical approaches like frequent feeding, improved forage quality, use of palatable feeds, good nutrition balance and greater nutrient density are required. However, feeding excessive quantities of nutrients, like crude protein, can contribute to reduced efficiency of energy utilization, potentially adding to stress levels. Likewise, if less forage is consumed, and the forage is high in quality, the cows' rumination activity may decrease. So, a through understating of dietary modification to minimize heat stress is necessary. Heat production from feed intake peaks 4 to six hours after feeding. Therefore, heat production for animal feed in the morning will peak in the middle of the day when the environmental temperature is also elevated. Consequently, it has been suggested that feeding animals later in the day prevents the coincidal occurrence of peak metabolic and environmental heat load. Furthermore, limiting energy intake can effectively decrease basal metabolic heat production and therefore, decrease the total metabolic heat load of animals subjected to high environmental temperature.
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Concept of cold diet

A cold diet is one that generates a high proportion of net nutrients for the synthesis and decreases heat generated during fermentation and metabolism. The salient features of a cold diet are: higher energy content per unit volume, more digestible fiber, effective fiber (NDFef), Lower protein degradability, and more by-pass nutrients.
Antioxidant supplementation
Nutritional tools, such as antioxidant feeding (Vit-A, selenium, zinc, etc.) and ruminant specific live yeast can help. Studies have shown that addition of antioxidant in diets of cows is able to reduce stress and is a good strategy to prevent mastitis, optimize feed intake and reduce the negative impact of heat stress on milk production. Moreover, the use of antioxidant such as Vit-E, Vit-A, selenium and selenium enriched yeast help reducing the impact of heat stress on the oxidant balance, resulting in improved milk quality and cow health. A recent study in cattle showed that the supplementation of Vit-E help in reducing the heat stress and improves the antioxidant status and lowers the incidence of mastitis, metritis, and retention of placenta. During the period of heat stress the risks of rumen acidosis are increased particularly in high producing cows maintained on high concentrate diets. Factors that contribute to rumen acidosis problems in cow are related to DM intake decrease, particularly lower forage intake and higher levels of fermentable carbohydrates. A decreased rumination and decreased salivary activity reduce buffering power of rumen. A low rumen pH impairs fiber digestion efficiency due to the effect on rumen fibrolytic bacteria.
Fiber feeding
Because there is greater heat production associated with metabolism of acetate compared with propionate, there is a logical rationale for the practice of feeding low fiber rations during hot weather. Feeding more concentrate at the expense of fibrous ingredients increases ration energy density and reduce heat increment. Altered proportions of ruminal volatile fatty acids (VFA) may explain a part of the differences in the heat increments with fiber feeding during heat stress. VFA constitutes a large proportion of the energy available to the cow, and declining intake during heat stress reduces the quantity of VFA in the rumen because fermentable carbohydrate is reduced. Increased feeding of concentrates is a common practice during conditions conducive to heat stress, but maximal benefit from concentrates appears to be approximately 60 to 65% of the diet. Excessive concentrate feeding leads to acidosis and the associated production, health, and metabolic difficulties. The large amount of highly fermentable carbohydrate fed in typical high-concentrate diets should minimize the heat production observed in the very high-fiber diets, which were used in research settings. Although high-fiber diets contribute to heat stress, the level of intake is far more critical to the total amount of metabolic heat produced. Growing heifers fed pelleted rations containing 75% alfalfa or 25% alfalfa produced 48.8 and 45.5 MJ/d of heat. However, when the low and high intake (4.2 and 7.1 kg/d DMI) heifers were compared, heat production was 38.2 and 56.1 MJ/d. Therefore, intake effects have a substantial effect on heat production and must be considered in designing an effective nutritional and environmental management program. Research suggests that lower fiber, high grain diets may indeed reduce metabolic heat production and contribute to lower heat load in the animal. Further, the low fiber, high grain diets provide more efficiently used end products, which contribute to lower dietary heat increment. However, low fiber, high grain diets must be balanced with the need for adequate fiber to promote chewing and rumination to maintain ruminal pH and cow health.
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Feeding Fats and Concentrates

The addition of fat to the diet of lactating dairy cows is a common practice, and the greater energy density and the potential to reduce heat increment of high-fat diets may be particularly beneficial during hot weather. There is reference which shows that fat can be added to the ration to the level of 3 to 5% without any adverse effects to ruminal microflora. Improved efficiency and lower heat increment should make fat especially beneficial during hot weather. Ruminally protected fats allow the inclusion of a substantial quantity of fat in the diet, which could lower heat increment significantly.
Water balance and water requirements

Water is the most essential element for the survival of animals. Water requirements for livestock can be met in three ways: 1. Metabolic water, derived from the oxidation of organic substrates and tissue
2. Water contained in food 3. Drinking water
In any event, the first route is the most important in quantitative terms and in summer it is by far the largest source. During the summer, any factor that limits access to water, directly affects the production of sheep. Sheep with water restrictions manifest higher body temperature, with a degree of heat stress higher than normal. Furthermore, water consumption and dry matter intake are closely related (NRC, 2001). Under intense heat, ingestion of large volumes of water provides comfort to the animals by reducing the temperature of the rumen reticulum.
Improved health service

Increase in temperature and humidity due to climate change is strongly associated with emerging and re-emerging animal diseases by (i) increasing the diffusion of insects Culicoides imicola) that are the main vectors of several arboviruses (e.g. bluetongue, and African sickness); (ii) increasing the survival of viruses from one year to the next; (iii) improving conditions for new insect vectors that are now limited by colder temperatures. This will lead to production losses. Thus, improved disease's control strategies and health service at a big scale is required. For prevention, monitoring and control of livestock diseases, good data exchange mechanisms are required at both state and national level. These should cover the distribution of animal diseases, ecological conditions, including climate, and associated drugs and chemotherapeutants. In this contest, epidemiological surveillance is a critical component, and it not only involves the early identification of emerging diseases and trends but also for resource planning and measuring the impact of control strategies. A global approach to epidemiological surveillance should be taken and should involve collaboration between professionals involved human, animal and environmental health. Such surveillance programmes are essential in allowing us to recognize and respond to emerging risk to climate change. We can also use the geographic information system (GIS) by which we can both monitor the level of stress and how our climate is changing and monitor the spread of diseases. We can use it to look for periods or heavy rainfall using a spatial analyst and illustrate it using GIS. This system tells us which pathogens will flourish, under their preferred condition. This tool can also help to pinpoint the period of continually high minimum temperature. Likewise, predictive modeling system can also be used to
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predict the probability of an outcome. It has the potential to predict the probability of global climate change on ecological system and emerging hazards. Furthermore, laboratory and field research will also help in illuminating how climate changes influence pathogen characteristics, and models will help researchers and producers predict and plan for pathogen threats.
Conclusion
This chapter elaborates on ameliorative strategies that should be given consideration to prevent economic losses incurred due to environmental stresses on livestock productivity. Reducing heat stress in livestock requires multidisciplinary approaches, which emphasize animal nutrition, housing, and animal health. It is important to understand the livestock responses to environment, analyze them, in order to design modifications of nutritional and environmental management thereby improving animal comfort and performance. Management alternatives, such as the strategic use of wind protection and bedding in the winter or sprinklers and shade in the summer, need to be considered to help livestock cope with adverse conditions. In addition to these changes, manipulation of diet energy density and intake may also be beneficial for livestock challenged by environmental conditions. Additionally, socio-economical status, technological tools, and financial infrastructure have instrumental roles in modifying environment stress. The ameliorative measures, to be incorporated, are therefore driven by socio-economical and environmental factors.
Suggested reading
Collier, R.J., Collier, J.L., Rhoads, R.P. and Baumgard, L. H. 2008, Invited Review: Genes Involved in the Bovine Heat Stress Response, Journal of Dairy Science, 91,445454. Gaughan, J.B., Holt, S.M., Mader, T.L., and Lisle, A. 2008. A new heat load index for feedlot cattle, Journal of Animal Sciences, 86, 226-234. Hahn, G.L. 1981. Housing and management to reduce climatic impacts on livestock, Journal of Animal Sciences 52,175-186. Mader, T. L., Holt, S. M., Hahn, G. L., Davis, M. S., and Spiers, D. E. 2002, Feeding strategies for managing heat load in feedlot cattle. Journal of Animal Sciences 80, 23732382. Marai, I.F.M., El-Darawany, A.A., Fadiel, A., Abdel-Hafez, M.A.M. 2007. Physiological traits as affected by heat stress in sheep A review, Small Ruminant Research 71, 1-12. Rivington, M., Matthews, K.B., Buchan, K., Miller, D. and Russell, G., 2009, Investigating climate change impacts and adaptation options using integrated assessment methods, Aspects of Applied Biology, 93, 85-92. Scaramuzzi, R. J., Cambel, B. K., Downing, J. A., Kendall, N. R., Khalid, M., Gutierrez, M., Somchit, A. 2006. A review of the effect of supplementary nutrition in the ewe on the concentration of reproductive and metabolic hormones and the mechanism that regulate folliculogenesis and ovulation rate, Reproduction Nutrition Development, 46, 339-354. Sejian, V., Mech, A., Mishra, A., Kolte, A.P., Dhali, A and Ravindra, J.P. 2013. Modern approaches in minimizing stress to improve fertility in livestock. In: Model training course on Advances in improving reproductive efficiency in livestock under field condition-knowledge transfer at Animal Physiology Division, NIANP, Bangalore between February 14-21, pp 161-170. Sejian, V., Singh, A.K., Sahoo, A and Naqvi, S.M.K. 2013. Effect of mineral mixture and antioxidant supplementation on growth, reproductive performance and adaptive capability of Malpura ewes subjected to heat stress. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, (DOI: 10.1111/jpn.12037). Sejian,V., Valtorta, S., Gallardo, M., and Singh, A.K. 2012. Ameliorative measures to counteract environmental stresses. In: Environmental stress and amelioration in livestock production. Sejian, V., Naqvi, S.M.K., Ezeji, T., Lakritz, J and Lal, R (Eds), Springer-Verlag GMbH Publisher, Germany, pp 153-180. Ugurlu, N., and Uzal, S. 2010. The effect of new designed micro animal housing on the air speed distribution in the barn for providing of climatic comfort to the cattle. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 9: 169-172. Vinoles, C., Forsberg, M., Martin, G. B., Cajarville, C., Repetto, J., Meikle, A. 2005. Short term nutritional supplementation of ewes in low condition affects follicle development due to an increase in glucose and metabolic hormones, Reproduction, 129, 299-309.
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21
Computerization of Dairy Farm

U.B. Angadi and S. Anandan National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Introduction Application of computers in present day has almost touched all walks of life, and agriculture/animal husbandry is no exception. Use of computers has immensely helped in better management of resources and manpower resulting in better efficiency and productivity. While use of computers in the livestock sector has many applications, the present lecture note is restricted to use of computers in feed resources information system, least-cost formulations and dairy farm management. Information and computing technologies can provide information required for decision-making and planning locally to improve the information flow within the agricultural community. Generally, use of information technology (IT) in agriculture is restricted to policy makers and researchers. In crop production system, exploitation of computer is difficult since weather parameters and rain fall are difficult to predict in advance and to take possible corrective action to overcome these problems. Other factors like soil, seeds, fertilizer and pesticides status can be known in advance, and possible corrective steps can be taken in advance through proper knowledge management. However, in dairy farm management, information and computing technologies substantially used from automatically recording of dairy activities to automated feeding and milk harvesting. Computer-based decision support system for dairy farm is a scalable system which can be incrementally developed and extended to cover all types of dairy farms and all aspects such as feed resources, feeding practices, animal health, reproduction and production. Since a whole dairy farm encompasses environmental, economic, social, political and biophysical components, its analysis is best served by a systems approach that accounts for the interactions among these components, and that can trace the consequences of an intervention through the entire system (Kelly, 1995) The complexity of dairy farms is the creation of a whole-farm model as a decision support system integrating
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several modeling approaches in order to better analyze dairy activities. Consequently, dairy operations could evaluate different management strategies depending on seasonal issues such as shortage of feed resources, price variation in feed ingredients, milk market variations, health, reproduction problems, etc. Dairy model involves feed resources information consisting of feed availability, nutritive values in available feed and feed requirements of different animal categories based on their production potential, feed and nutrient budgeting using optimization models, the economic impacts resulting under different conditions and managerial characteristics of dairies, dairy daily recording system on reproduction data, production data, feeding and health, etc. Information related to 1) Feed resource information system, 2) Optimization model for balance rations, reduce methane leaching and total mixed rations, 3) Dairy recording system, are the main three features of computerized dairy farms are briefly discussed as under.
Feed resources information system

This is the main feed library module contains and sharing of information pertaining to all feed resources available in India with features like common name, scientific name, regional/seasonal distributions, composition and nutritive value, usage as feed for different species, package of practices, feed market, environment impact, etc. This also provides information on the different categories of livestock,feed and nutrient requirements for maintenance, growth and production potential on various categories of livestock species. Integrated database with spatial interaction on animal and feed resources is the key to addressing livestock, feed and dairy management plan of sustainability concerns combining database with recent advance computer visualization techniques may be workable option. Visualization of prospective past animal and feed resources may thus provide valuable information for assess impacts of feed and livestock management planning. In view of this, FeedBase has been developed; FeedBase is a vital decision support system that provides information on feed availability vis-a-vis the feed requirements for different species of livestock across the different states and agro-eco regions of the country with districts as a primary unit. The information is generated based on the potential feed availability from crop production data and land utilization pattern while the feed requirements have been worked out using the production potential of different species of livestock. User friendly GUI based FeedBase software has been developed for accessing the information in tabular and graphical mode. It also has the provision to present data in spatial form using thematic map modules have been developed to storage and to generate spatial data. The database provides quantitative information on the availability of different feed resources, requirement for various species of livestock and the feed balance for the period 1995 to 2011 classified by states and agro-climatic regions. The GIS-based animal feed database system would be an important tool for planners, policy makers, animal husbandry departments and development agencies in efficient feed and livestock management. The features of the Feedbase-12
1. 2. 3. 4.
It contains data of animal feed resources based on crop production statistics, and fodder data based land use pattern statistics. Contains district wise livestock census data of 5 census (1987, 1992, 1997, 2003 and 2007) Graphical user interface tool to define query as user requirement Presenting the information based on the query in tabular, graphical and GIS Map forms.
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Fodder module can be used to estimate monthly biomass and pasture sequences under different climatic conditions, depending on soil conditions, manure applications, irrigation, new fodder varieties and other managerial choices.
Optimization module for balance ration

The feed costs constitute 50 to 60% of the total cost of milk production, regulating feed costs and/or improving feed utilization becomes the largest single area where profits can be increased. There is a need to provide a dedicated up-to-date, comprehensive nutrition and ration balancing software to the dairy industry. Today the dairy industry finds itself in unprecedented economic circumstances requiring dairy farmers to feed cows and heifers as efficiently as possible. There is no longer any excuse to overfeed or underfeed. Dairy farmer can quickly determine if a ration is too heavy on starch and low on effective fiber. They can quickly make changes based upon prices while still meeting nutritional parameters. A computer-based module is required to take a host of feed ingredients, with various nutritional attributes and above points that must be considered, analyze them based on livestock size, environment and desired milk production and milk components. In view of this the Institute has developed Feed Assist Feed Assist is an expert system to compute balanced ration for dairy animals in least cost as per the nutrient requirements of various categories of cattle and buffalo using a choice of the feed resources available. This system has been developed using MS-Access as back-end tool and Visual BASIC as front-end tool. By choosing the feed ingredients and providing the details of the animal with respect to the parameters like, body weight, average daily growth rate and milk yield the farmer can obtain a balanced diet that gives the details of different ingredients and their proportions to be fed. It employs feed resources data with compositions from above-mentioned module for availably of nutritive value and category (calf, growing animals, and pregnant, lactating dry and working animals) wise feed requirements in terms of DM, TDN and DCP for cattle and buffalo. A multi-lingual user and farmer friendly graphical user interface (GUI) module has been developed using Visual BASIC. This is developed based on Linear Programming Problem (LPP) for optimizing feed formulation at least cost. This is a mathematical algorithm to find the least-cost feeds that satisfy the nutritional requirements. Under field conditions formulating a balanced diet with the available resources is one of the major challenges as the field veterinarians or the farmer is most of the times unaware of the requirement for different categories and nutrient content of common feeds. The feed assist can be useful tool in taking care of this limitation wherein a variety of diets can be balanced at minimum costs using a combination of feed resources that are readily available with the farmer for all the categories of livestock. This can also help in decision making in terms of the feed ingredients to be purchased from a range of ingredients available locally and priced differently. Computerized ration modeling is a powerful management tool on any dairy farm today, whether it to be big or small, and it allows any dairy farm to analyze rations thoroughly and in a very timely manner. The features of the Feed Assist Very easy to use, Multi-lingual Enhanced with a touch screen user interface, Provides a very easy system to manage ingredient composition database and editing of cost.
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A very easy and friendly interface to calculate nutrient requirements for various categories of animals Save the formulation Retrieve the saved formulations Provides results in graphical farm bar chart and pie charts, which gives an instant overview of the solution and the diet. Two versions- i)professional for researchers, feed industries and commercial dairy farms, and ii) customized version suitable for farming community.
This optimization module that can devise balanced feeding to dairy animals, formulation of total mixed ration with minimize cost and maximize utilization of nutrient based on an objective function and a set of constraints/restrictions. Similarly, this can be also used to reduce methane and manure nitrogen excretion / leaching.
Dairy recording system and herd management

There is a need to measure nutrient balance, tracking of inputs and outputs for various farm managements that provide the quantitative basis for better management. Necessitate to reassembles a monthly balance of revenues to less expense. Revenues on a dairy farm come from sale of milk, sale of cows, sale of calf and heifers, gain on purchased livestock, sale of crops, and other revenues. Expenses are divided onto feed purchase, personnel, milk marketing, crop expenses, other expenses and expenses on vaccination and health issues. Due in part to high labor costs to maintain resources, feeding systems and attempts to reduce drudgery, have become increasingly mechanized, automated, and computerized dairy farming. The maintenance of animal health and production at the most efficient level will provide maximum economic returns to the farmer. The maintenance of animal health, feeding and cleanliness, resistance to infection and behavioral patterns are involved. In order to be able to maintain good health, the need for a good record-keeping system for the farm, this is essentially consisted of individual life history. This includes production (milk, fat, etc.), reproduction (heat, artificial insemination, pregnant, calving), disease and vaccinations monitoring and feeding practices. Now a day's computer has become an integral part of dairy farm management for milk recording services, generation of herd analysis reports, provide individual animal level analysis on all aspects, document production characteristics of dairy farms, aid to researchers/dairyman in providing a large research database to develop new techniques. The software collects the data and tracks them over long periods of time, resulting in personal profiles for each cow. Eventually, the system predicts problems before they develop and help in improving the efficiency of the production and profits.
References
Kelly, T.C., 1995. A bioeconomic systems approach to sustainability analysis at the farm lvel, Ph.D. Thesis. University of Florida, Gainesville. Angadi, U.B., Anandan, S. and Jash, S. 2012. FeedBase 2012District wise feed resources availability and requirement in the country, National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Adugodi, Bangalore. Angadi, U.B. et al., 2012, Feed Assist Expert System for Balanced Ration for Dairy animal, National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Adugodi, Bangalore.
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22
Using Internet for Technical Information: Opportunities and Precautions
Atul P Kolte, A. Dhali, Ashis K Samanta and S. Senani National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Information resources on Internet

The Internet represents an important and rapidly growing medium of communication. The biggest frustration that most people have with the Web, especially those new to the Web, is the amount of time and energy it takes to find useful information. With over a billion active pages, there will never be enough time for you to take in all that the Web has to offer. If you want to regularly use the Web and to benefit from what the Web has to offer, you have to be smart about how you use what time you have. While there are no hard-and-fast rules about what strategy to use, at least some of the following tactics should help you to get more out of your Web experience. The information available in the internet is mostly scattered and difficult to manually pickup. To search the desired information plenty of search engines are available for the users. The internet information can be searched from three different methods.
Using directories
These are edited, and annotated pages catalogued in one database. The data gathered is usually of general nature viz. common medical problems, information about popular events and art and scientific topics. However, these databases have little importance when it comes to retrieving purely technical information. The directories cannot cover entire contents of the internet, since the pages are changing every day and thousands of pages are added each day.
Using search engines

Search engine is a website portal which, accepts query terms and displays the documents from the resource available in the database at the search engine's site. The database is generated by small porgrammes called as web crawlers, spiders, etc. These programmes visit different sites and send the data on internet pages to the database and also inform the changes on the pages. For getting listed in the search engines, it is essential
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that the site should be connected to other sites through some link. Stand alone sites cannot be searched by the web crawlers. Another way of listing the site on search engine database is to send information to the administrator of the search engine. This approach can cover the web contents up to 50-60%. Since most of the data from the web is in database form, which is not available as a preformed page but has to be queried from the designated page. This data cannot be searched from the search engines.
Using meta search engines

Search engine's capacity is limited by the database available, and the kind of programmes used for gathering data. For same topic, different search engines may present unlike results. Some of the search engines rank the pages based on place and number of times the query term appears in the target page and shows the high ranked pages in the first few results. It becomes necessary to search data from different search engines for getting maximum information. This facility is available at meta search engines. These are the web portals which search the query terms in multiple search engines and present results. Meta search engines cover up to 70% of the information on the web.
Literature Databases
Enormous amount of literature is available through the internet resources, access to which is provided by different journals as well as university and professional society's sites. Data on a particular topic of interest may be published in different journals and hence there is a need for some centralized databases. The most accessed literature databases over the internet are Medline, Science direct, BioMedNet, Highwire Press, National Academies Press, etc., which provide literature searches limited up to abstracts of the publications and if subscribed to provide electronic reprint. Some of the sites do provide access to free contents. The Medline database, accessible via Pub Med covers around 4500 journals published over 90 countries and now the information has a link with few important textbooks. The database gives access to literature since mid 1960s.
Searching the Web and databases

Searching desired information from the all available websites is a difficult task and many a times the searches made in search engines returns with large amounts of unrelated information and so is the case with databases. To exclude the unwanted information, most search engines are compatible with Boolean search, that is, one that uses Boolean operators viz. AND, OR and NOT. It is really very difficult to have successful freetext searches without understanding how to build search strings using these operators.
Basics of AND and OR

AND and OR in the context of boolean sometimes seem to mean the opposite that they do in language, so try not to think of boolean strings as English sentences. AND means "search only documents that contain both words." OR means "search documents that contain either of the word."
Parenthesis ( )
Parenthesis is used for searching more than two terms with AND and OR. Parenthesis tells the computer which part to solve first because computer does not read the search terms from left to right but it
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interprets Boolean operators following rules. Usually ANDs are solved first followed by ORs. Putting the terms in parenthesis directs computer to solve the parenthesis first.
There are times when parentheses are not needed

Only using AND: "Sheep AND intestine AND parasite AND anaemia AND drugs" Only using OR: "feed OR ration OR straw OR bran"
Near
Using AND between terms, the search will result in documents where both the terms appear anywhere in the document. Within a long document, a lot of different words will create combinations that are not discussed in the document. Using NEAR operator ensures that both the terms are within reasonable distance from each other. This reasonable distance varies from search engine to search engine and usually lies in the range of 9-15 words.
NOT
NOT tells the search engine to exclude any documents that contain the word following NOT. This command is usually too powerful to use. The command can be replaced by using the minus sign immediately preceding the term to be excluded
Phrases
Phrase searching is done by enclosing the search terms in to double inverted quotes (). Once enclosed in the quotes, the entire block of words are searched as a single tern without splitting the words. This method drastically reduces the number of hits and you get pages with very specific results.
ADJASCENT
The operator is used when the search term is composed of two words and either of the word comes first and the second follows. These types of keywords are used with adjacent operator. If the same is searched with phrase searching you may loose half of the documents from your results. Some search engines uses symbols instead of words as follows
AND NOT OR Wildcards + - or at some engines ! | * and ? as used in computer programmes
FINALLY A good general rule (for your first few search attempts at least) is better to stick with a simple search and resort to complicated one only if you are not finding what you want.
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Using '~' Symbol

To include all the synonyms in the search the query can be put using the symbol in front of the term. Viz. ~auto search will return with pages of car, taxi, truck, SUV, pickup etc.
Searching for specific file types

Documents are stored in many different formats on the internet for download by the users. Searching the documents needs instruction to the search engine to show only the links which have downloadable files. The different searchable file types are doc, ppt, pdf, rtf, xls. The query is written as keywords followed by file type:extension of the file format.
Tips for effective searching

The web pages are filled with information and links to different web sites and other topics of interest. In just a few clicks you could end up in a completely different part of the Web. Sometimes you can take so many twists and turns that even the back button on the browser won't get you back to where you started. The simple way to avoid this problem is to have a clear set of goals for every Web visit. If your goal is to do work, stick to work-related subjects. If you are out to have fun, don't try to sneak in a little work. Getting what you want from the Web gets easier over time. You either figure out where the reliable sources of good information are, or you become good at the techniques for finding new resources. If you haven't found it by the end of your self-imposed time limit, then it is either not on the Web or too well hidden for you to find. In either case, once your time is up, move on to something else. However, do not forget to check the status of information periodically. When you find a page or a site that is particularly useful, use your browser's bookmarking capability to record the URL. By using the book marking function, it is easy to organize your favorite links for quick access. Review your browsers documentation to see how to bookmark a site. The time it takes a browser to load a new page depends on the amount of data on that page. Since graphics are often the largest part of any page, you can speed up loading time by setting up your browser so it does not load graphics. Once you have found what you are looking for, you can change the settings back to normal. This is an especially useful tactic if you are hunting through many sites during a search for information. To learn how to turn off the graphics capability, consult your browser's documentation or help files. Avoid bad Web sites, this may come as a complete shock, but most Web sites are not worth a second visit. Usually, a quick scan of a few pages is all you need to tell if the site is worth your time. If several of the following are true about a site, then you should avoid that site in the future: * * * * * * The site does not have a clear purpose. Information on the site is out of date. Other sites present the same information better. There are a lot of graphics and other elements that add nothing to the site. It is difficult to navigate around the site. The site contains many spelling and grammatical errors.
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Judging the information

Unless the site is managed by an officially sanctioned or widely recognized organization, the first step of establishing the legitimacy of a site should consist of identifying what individual, or group was responsible for the site and whether that individual or group has the authority or the capacity to discuss the subject matter covered by the Web site. A Web site meeting most or all the following criteria is more likely to be a legitimate and credible source of information:

The person or group responsible for the content or administration of the site is easily identifiable, The person or group responsible for the content or administration of the site was qualified by experience, expertise, or credentials, to discuss the subject matter covered in the site, The person or group responsible for the site risks damage to their reputation if the information about the site is not accurate or credible, The individual, organization or group that controls a site also has an ongoing related presence outside of the Web, or Many of the key Web sites in related areas have links to the site.
Establishing the quality of the information in a site

When judging the information on a Web site, probably the best general rule is to apply the same kinds of standards that would be applied to aviation-related journal articles, research reports, or statistical summaries that are regularly published by academic institutions or government agencies. Sometimes it may take an extensive examination of the information in a site to judge the quality of the information on the site. However, if a site does not meet many of the following criteria, it may be better to look elsewhere for the kind of information that is contained in the site:

The written content consistently follows basic rules of grammar, spelling and composition, Tables, graphs, charts, and other data-related elements are clearly labeled and accurately depict the underlying data, The site contains few, if any, factual errors, The site states the sources of the information used in the site, The site clearly describes the method or methods used in any analysis discussed within the site, The site provides definitions of any acronyms or special terminology used in the site, There are no apparent conflicts of interest between the sponsor of the site, or advertisers on the site, and the information in the site; or The information on the site is as good as or better than similar information from other sources.
Evaluating a site's ease of use

While not directly related to the first two steps of judging the legitimacy and the quality of the information on a site, another way to judge the content of a site is to evaluate how the site is organized. In general, a well-organized site is one that allows a visitor to the site to navigate easily within the site and that also provides links to relevant resources elsewhere on the Web. Like a book that has an extensive index or table of
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contents, a Web site that is easy to navigate is more desirable than a Web site that is hard to navigate. A Web site that is easy to navigate is likely to have at least some of the following characteristics:

One or more individual web pages that serve as either an index or a table of contents for the site, There are internal or external links to Web resources that have complementary or related information, The site has an internal search engine, The site's structure puts the most frequently visited pages within two links from the home page, There is a consistent arrangement of textual and graphical elements for the pages on the site, or Every page within the site has a link to at least one of the following: the home page, the table of contents, the index, or the internal search engine
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23
Role of Improved Feeding Practices in Augmenting Livelihood Security of Livestock Farmers
A. V. Elangovan, K. Giridhar, Sharagouda and P. Khandekar National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Livestock farming can substantially contribute to the livelihood options of small, marginal and landless farmers. Poor farming households attempt to integrate crop and animal enterprises primarily to maximize the returns from their limited land and capital. Many Asian countries, mixed farming involving crops and livestock integration have been a way of life since the beginning of agriculture. Livestock has been kept as a source of investment, insurance against disaster and also for cultural purposes. Mixed farming systems (where crops and animals are integrated on the same farm) form the backbone of small-scale Asian agriculture. Livestock in these systems not only provides 90% of the milk, 77% of the ruminant meat, 47% of pork and poultry meat, and 31% of eggs, but also fills an important economic and ecological niche throughout Asia. Poor farmers own animals for a variety of advantageous reasons viz., diversification in the use of production resources and reduction of risk, promotion of links between system components (land, crops and water), more efficient use of household labour, production of high-quality protein food for household food security and for the market, economic security (assets that can be converted into cash or exchanged for goods and services when necessary), supply of draught power for cultivation, transportation and haulage operation, contribution to soil fertility through nutrient cycling (manure). Presently, the feed resources available within the country are able to meet the entire livestock production, and it is going to be a big challenge to continue with the current rate of the growth in the livestock sector and the demand for the livestock products. Some of the major factors contributing to the feed deficit are stagnation in the area under cultivation, low productivity, limited area under fodder cultivation, burning of crop residues, export of feed resources, etc.
Dairy farming
Dairy farming is the most profitable venture among the livestock sectors. Dairying is an important means of livelihood to a large proportion of landless labourers and small and marginal farmers which in turn has increased the milk production to more than fivefold since 1950-51. As the feed cost has increased enormously, ensuring a remunerative price to the producers and a reasonable price and quality for milk and milk products to the consumers is a big challenge. However, for high-yielding cows / buffaloes, quality green fodder along
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concentrate mixture is a must for exploiting the full genetic potential. Some of the interventions include chaffing of fodders, preparation of concentrate mixture, area -specific mineral mixture supplementation; urea molasses block preparation, fodder cultivation, etc. The dairy farming can be made a successful venture by several factors and under our NAIP livelihood project currently operating at Chitradurga district of Karnataka following interventions was adopted: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Breed improvement of existing stock through artificial insemination service Purchase of milch cows by availing loan facilities through various schemes of NABARD and rural banks. Enhancement of fodder base through cultivation of perennial fodder crops like sesbania, glyceridia, melia etc. and azolla cultivation. More emphasis on balanced feeding and area-specific mineral mixture supplementation. Timely health care and regular vaccination through Animal Husbandry Departments. Opening of milk collection stations / milk route.
The local cows and buffaloes are predominant in the adopted villages of Chitradurga district. A fieldlevel investigation was carried under the NAIP livelihood project to study the effect of feeding azolla on milk production and economics in 11 villages by establishing 110 azolla production units of 6 4 feet size with silpaulin sheet and mesh covering. The livestock owners were given proper training on azolla cultivation through method demonstrations. Farmers could harvest azolla @ 700gm per day (mean fresh weight) from each unit and feed to their milch animals. Usage of azolla reduced the usage of concentrates by 12 kg during the lactation period (for 120 days @ 100 grams/day) and saved Rs.240. The milk production improved by 0.6 liters per day for 120 days (120 0.6 = 72 lit) with azolla feeding plus additional milk in the extra lactation period of 30 days (30 2 = 60 lit), giving an additional income of Rs.3036 (132 lit Rs.23). As shown in table 1, the farmer spent Rs.905 for azolla production and feeding, and got a net profit of Rs.2,371 per local milch animal. Table 1. Partial budgeting to assess benefits of using azolla as feed supplement for local cows and buffaloes (Rs/animal/annum)
Sl. No A: Debit side Additional cost: Rs. 905 For purchasing silpaulin sheet, mesh, single super phosphate, dung, soil, azolla culture and labour (4 woman days) charges for 6 4 feet size azolla pond Reduced returns : 2 Total 0 B: Credit side Reduced cost : Rs. 240 Due to the savings in the usage of concentrates in the lactation period
Additional returns : Due to extra milk yield and lactation period by feeding Azolla Rs. 3,036 Rs. 3,276
Rs. 905 Net Gain : B-A = Rs. 3276 905 = Rs. 2,371
Sheep and Goat Farming Rearing of sheep and goat is more profitable with assured and constant income, which offers an opportunity for augmenting the income, even for those who do not have access to land and capital resources. Sheep and goat farmers mainly depend on forage from a combination of private land and common gazing land. Goat is a multi
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functional animal and can efficiently survive on available shrubs and trees in adverse harsh environment. Sheep with its multi-facet utility for wool, meat and manure form an important component of rural economy of the country. The advantages of these farming are several: do not need expensive housing facilities, require less labour, quick return, will eat varied kinds of plants compared to dairying. Under our NAIP livelihood project, following interventions were adopted. 1 2 3 4 Introduction of crossbred Rambouillet rams. Facilitating loans from banks for increasing existing stock. Vaccination carried out for important diseases like PPR and entero-toxaemia and regular deworming Popularization of perennial fodder crops like sesbania, glyceridia, melia etc.
Under the NAIP livelihood project, to improve sheep farming, interventions like use of mineral mixture and top feeds (Sesbania and Melia) and also; periodical health care by vaccinations and deworming of the flocks were done. These measures reduced mortality rate of young flock by 5 %, resulting in three extra lambs, fetching Rs.8, 400 in two years. The benefit per annum was Rs. 4,200 from this head. Similarly, improved meat production gave additional returns of Rs.25, 500 (2.5 kg 34 Rs. 300 ) from 34 sheep that were sold in two years period, with an annual benefit of Rs.12,750. The extra value of the existing flock of 40 (after the sale of 37 sheep) per two years worked out to be Rs.38,400 (per year additional returns: 38,400/2 = Rs.19,200) . The farmer spent Rs.12,400 per the flock of 40 sheep and gained a net benefit of Rs. 23,750 as depicted in the Table 2. Table 2. Partial Budgeting to assess benefits of improved sheep farming with mineral mixture, top feeds and health care (Rs./ flock size of 40 /annum) - Mean of 2 years' study
Sl. No A: Debit side Additional cost per sheep: Rs.310 (Feed: Rs.90 for mineral mixture and concentrates; Health care: Rs.90 for deworming twice a year & once a year Vaccination; and other costs : Rs.130) Per Flock: 12,400 Reduced returns : 0 B: Credit side Reduced cost : 4,200 Due to reduced mortality (by 5 %, resulting in 3 extra lambs)
Additional returns : Rs. 31,950 1.From extra meat production of 2.5 Kg per sheep (Rs.12,750) 2.Extra value of existing flock of sheep: Rs. 19,200 36,150
Total
12,400 Net Gain per flock /year : B-A = Rs. 23,750
Poultry Farming
Rural poultry rearing can play an important role in providing the rural population with a substantial income and high-quality protein. The major concern is of low productivity of desi birds, although they are resistant to diseases as well as predators. Adopting improved varieties of birds developed by ICAR institutes and universities can ensure more availability of eggs and meat in rural areas, which could help in alleviating the incidence of protein deficiency of the susceptible group, women, children, expectant mothers and aged; besides providing supplemental income / employment. Since backyard poultry can be managed by women, a
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planned effort should be made to develop it as a group activity of women as vaccinators and should be thought for manufacturing low cost feed formulations at the village / house level. Under NAIP livelihood project, 12 female and three male chicks of around 10 weeks of age were given to each farmer and during the laying phase, on an average, they could get 5-7eggs per day which intern could fetch Rs. 600/-month per family with the sale of eggs in local market and also provided nutritional security to children.
Conclusions
Success of dairying / sheep-goat / poultry rearing as a livelihood option is mainly dependent on breed, management, integration with agricultural practices and the ready access to markets ably supported with the right kind of technical support in terms of feeding, health care and management. Livestock production plays a substantial role in the livelihood of farmers in developing countries providing food, income, employment and many other contributions to rural development.
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24
Role of Extension Services in Sustainable Dairy Production
Letha Devi and Prakash Khandekar National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology
Dairy farming in India is now recognized not only as an important source of livelihood for rural families but also as a tool that can address the problem of rural poverty effectively. Changing market and economic conditions, while providing new opportunities through increasing demand for milk and milk products, are posing tougher challenges for the dairy farmers. Attention is drawn towards the potential of dairy production as an income generating enterprise and strategic option for agricultural diversification for small farmers. Improvement in livestock production is an important pathway for increasing the income of marginal and small farmers and landless laborers, given the uncertainties of agriculture. Extension is one of the most ignored links and there is a need for complete overhaul of the system to remain relevant in this fast-changing production/market scenario and to meet challenges posed by liberalization of agricultural trade and develop effective and efficient delivery systems for inputs and services to enable dairy farmers to overcome these constraints. The livestock technology transfer plays an important role in this context to empower the farmers with appropriate technologies and imparting of skills through various informal technology transfer and training programs.
Livestock dynamics and challenges

The dynamic livestock situation poses several challenges to livestock extension services. Some of the challenges with which the extension personnel have to cope with are: 1 2 How to reach millions of livestock owners spread all over across the country, especially those who are thriving in complex, diverse and risk prone (CDR) environment? How to improve the living standards of the rural livestock owners through livestock farming, especially when the pressure on land is increasing and common property lands are slowly fading out forcing the rural poor to maintain the animals on purchased fodders? How to sustain the production of livestock products with decreasing area under fodder and increase in the competition for feed resources and decreasing interests of the people in livestock farming?
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4 5
How to face the emerging livestock development situation as a sequel to the technological and development interventions? How to take cognizance of the changes that are taking place in the society which includes: occupational migration from farming to industry; spatial migration from rural to urban; shift from grazing to stall feeding; shift in focus from social to economic issue?
National goals and extension strategies

Swanson (2008) outlined three important agricultural development goals at national level and the objectives of the extension and advisory system to accomplish the national goals. These National goals are i) National food security, ii) Improving rural livelihood to reduce poverty and food insecurity, and iii) The sustainable use of natural resources within the country. To accomplish these goals the extension system, whether it is agriculture or livestock extension, needs to be focused on the following four objectives: Technology transfer, for better production of food grains, milk, meat, eggs, fish, etc. Human capital development, by improving skills for the farmer to increase farm income Building social capital development by organizing farmers into producer groups, etc. Educating farmers to utilize sustainable natural resource management practices.
Livestock, including poultry and fisheries get impacts due to natural disasters, policy changes, turbulent markets, etc. Setting proper goals and appropriate objectives to realize these set goals is necessary for reducing poverty, malnutrition and diseases. It is in this context the extension services need to be innovative in their concept, objectives and approaches.
Extension strategies for sustainable dairy production

There are several new extension approaches being developed and used in the recent times. The common approaches are discussed in detail below.
Group approach
The Extension approach needs to be changed from individual to group. The development of sustainable farming practices often requires collective decision making, whereas extension during the past mainly supported individual (Head of the family) decision making (van den Ban and Hawkins, 2004). NABARD's SHG bank linkage program boasts of over 26 lakh SHG and 3.9 crore households influencing the lives of over 160 million poor population. (NABARD, 2005). During the year 2006 07 alone, as many as 4,58,591 groups were credit linked. Out of this total population assisted through this group approach, 90 % are Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) (Thorat, 2006).Livestock rearing projects account for about 25 % of the total cost of the projects sanctioned to SHGs under Swarna Jayanthi Gram Swarojgar Yojana. There is enough evidence to show that as groups, the WSHGs could achieve social and economic empowerment with the involvement of government and non government institutions. However, the sustainability of these WSHGs is doubtful, especially when the loans sanctioned to have not been used for income-generating activities, instead were used for unproductive purposes like house construction or repair, marriages, purchase of ornaments, repayment of previous loans, etc. (Usharani, 2007).
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Market driven approach

In this era of market economy, adoption of technologies is market driven rather than technology driven. With the available technologies, procurement, transportation and sale of livestock products are more difficult and complex than producing them. Although the dairy sector has been doing quite well, not more than 20 % of the milk is being handled by the organized sector. Except in case of poultry eggs and chicken the marketing of other livestock products is totally in the unorganized sector. Organized markets for livestock transactions literally do not exist. Unless the markets are improved with price fixation based on proper standards and grading it is difficult to encourage the livestock owners to adopt technologies to enhance production. Mosher (1966) highlighted five "essentials" for "agricultural development" which are quite relevant even today. These include: (i) markets for farm products, (ii) constantly changing technology, (iii) local availability of supplies and equipments, (iv) production incentives for farmers, and (v) transportation.
Entrepreneurial development approach

Farmers have got entrepreneurial abilities, which enable them to try novel methods of farming, which are usually described as innovators exist in almost all social systems and skill of the extension personnel lies in identifying as well as encouraging such people to enter new ventures of livestock development. The experiences of these path finders could be profitably utilized to upscale for wider use. It is necessary to identify such entrepreneurs, prepare success stories and give wide publicity through various mass media channels to enable the interested people to emulate them.
Participatory approaches
Of late it is very well recognized that the farmers are considered as partners in development rather than as end users of technology. Evidence supports that it is beneficial to involve the livestock farmers in developing, adopting and evaluating the technologies. Many of the extension programs were not successful due to poor participation of farmers, and the needs of the livestock farmers were not taken into consideration. ICAR included on farm testing as one of the key activities of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) for its obvious advantages. The livestock extension should aim at empowering livestock farmers rather than making them just an agency of transfer of technology. It is necessary for the extension service providers to shift their approach from a fixed transfer of technology to more flexible and sustainable participatory extension to face the challenges in livestock development. Considering that more than 60 % of our livestock farmers are a resource poor and depend heavily on public sector for their information needs as well as inputs and technical services, the extension personnel should be empowered and sensitized to meet the demands, particularly by forging research-extension-education-farmer-market linkages. Technology must be developed based on the demand from the end users. Technologies which address the needs of the livestock farmers get adopted faster than those technologies which do not match their needs.
Farming systems approach

It replaces the conventional single discipline based, commodity oriented approach. This approach considers the farm, the farm household and off-farm activities in a holistic way to take care not only of farming but also all aspects of nutrition, food security, sustainability, risk minimization, income and employment generation, which make up the multiple objectives of farm households. Farming system considers interdependencies of the components under the control of members of the households as well as how these components interact with the physical, biological and socio-economic factors not under the household's control.
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Privatization of livestock extension services

In India, livestock extension is carried out mostly by the Departments of Animal Husbandry (AHD) and to some extent, by the Milk Unions, State Veterinary/Agricultural Universities (SAUs), research institutions of ICAR, and NGOs. With the increase in the pressure on the land and other resources and emphasis on efficiency in the use of resources, public spending on animal husbandry extension services is being questioned. Recognizing the limitations of public extension services in meeting the wide-ranging demands for agricultural technology, it was suggested to promote private and community driven extension to operate competitively with pubic extension. The National Commission on Agriculture (NCA, 1976) recommended that cattle owners should be charged for AI in areas where it is popular. However, it is being done by collecting nominal charges by the Departments of Animal Husbandry, on a cost basis by some of the Milk Producers' Cooperative Societies and NGOs. Similarly, the Milk Unions and AHDs are supplying cattle feed and vaccines on subsidy to milk producers. Some of the Milk Unions have implemented welfare measures like free cattle insurance, scholarships for children of the milk producers and accident insurance cover for the milk producers, etc. In the case of poultry, which is being run more on commercial lines compared to other livestock, the Animal Husbandry Extension services are more organized, and the poultry farmers are charged for almost all the services such as vaccination, de-beaking, post mortem, diagnosis and treatment of chicks. Based on the study conducted on privatizing agricultural extension in India, Rasheed and Sadamate (2000) suggested that the public sector could concentrate on organizing educational programs for farmers, which are less attractive to the private agencies. The public sector should also take up the role as facilitator in the formation of farmers' groups, building linkages with other extension agencies and initiating paid consultancy services by maintaining a cadre of qualified staff at district and sub district levels, and some of these services can later be entrusted to the farmers' groups. Private sector extension cannot completely substitute for public agencies in those circumstances where direct benefits do not assure to the firms involved, target populations are diffuse or remote, where infrastructure is inadequate and when production consists mainly of basic food grown by subsistence farmers. Research clearly indicated that investments in agricultural research and extension yield high returns. Ahuja et al. (2000) concluded based on a study conducted in three states of India that, there is a significant demand for the delivery of veterinary services at home and the cattle owners, including the poor are willing to pay to receive these services. The public extension service has still an important role to play in increasing the production of backyard poultry, which even today is the major contributor of egg and chicken production in the country. The AHDs continue to provide free inputs and technical services such as vaccinations to the backyard poultry.
Cyber extension and information communication technologies (ICTs)

Cyber extension refers to the process of extension done over cyber space or virtual space of interconnected networks over the globe which provides connectivity round the clock. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) make this possible over the cyber space. In recent years, cyber extension has gained popularity, and successful cyber extension initiatives were taken up by both public and private sectors in India. The ICT encompasses all those technologies that enable the handling of information and facilitate different forms of communication among human actors, between human beings and electronic systems, and among electronic systems. With the technological advancement in an information society, the role of ICTs such as email, cell phones, World Wide Web and kiosks promise to provide innovative solutions to the problems of poverty and inequality by accelerating the development through introducing transparency to the systems and operations. India with the largest English-speaking population in Asia has the highest number of information kiosks established across rural areas.
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Conclusion
National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey indicated that 60 percent of the farmers do not access any source of information for advanced agricultural technologies. As a result, there is a wide adoption gap among farming community to achieve the vertical increase in production through optimum resource utilization. If this be the case with agricultural technologies, where there is a network on extension and lot of funds are being used for transfer of technologies, livestock extension has to give more emphasis for betterment of poor livestock farmers. Research clearly revealed the yawning gaps in the knowledge levels of livestock owners which could be attributed to lack of livestock extension services in the country. Unlike in agriculture extension, there is a need to combine the education of livestock owners with the supply of quality inputs at the right time to facilitate easy adoption of recommended practices by them. The future extension thrust should be on marketing extension, farm women empowerment, facilitating the formation of low resource base farmer's groups, private extension services and environmental extension for sustainability in farming. The research in extension needs to generate data on farming system, cost-effectiveness of extension methods, accountability and extension federation for effective functioning of extension systems.
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Value Addition of Feed and Fodder For Dairy Cattle

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C

Trainers' Training Programme (Skill Development)

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

June 27- July 6, 2013

Editors N. M. Soren S. B.N. Rao Soumitra Jash C. S. Prasad

National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology Bangalore - 560 030

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Course Director Dr C. S. Prasad Director, NIANP

Course Co-Director S. B. N. Rao N. M. Soren

Edited and Compiled by N. M. Soren S. B.N. Rao Soumitra Jash C. S. Prasad

Published by Dr C S Prasad Director, NIANP

Designed & Format: Shankar T (ARIS Cell)

Guest Faculty K.T. Sampath U. Krishnamoorthy

Date: 24-06- 2013 Place: Bangalore

(C. S. Prasad) COURSE DIRECTOR

21 26 32 35 42 49 55 62 69 74 78 86 94 98 102 109 115 119 125 129

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Feed resources availability

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Technological options for efficient utilization of feeds in dairy

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Balanced feeding Ration balancing

Compound cattle feed

Area specific mineral mixtures

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Total mixed rations

Alternate feed resources

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

I. Non-conventional protein feedstuffs Oil cakes and meals Guar meal

Neem seed cake

Palm kernel cake

Rubber seed meal

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Sal seed meal

Tamarind seed hulls

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) Bagasse

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Sago (Metroxylon spp.)

III. Non-conventional feeds from tree crops Cocoa

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Palm press fibre (PPF)

Palm oil mill effluent (POME)

IV. Non-conventional feedstuffs from fruit processing Mango kernel

V. Leaves of field and tree crops Leaves of field crops

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Banana leaves (Musa sp.)

Cassava (Manihot esculenta) leaves

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) leaves

Pigeon pea leaves (Cajanus cajan)

Spent tea leaves

Sun hemp (Crotalaria juncea)

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes)

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle