Avaliação de folhas de Gliricidia sepium (JACQ.) walp por ovinos

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate Gliricidia sepium (GS) fresh leaves by growing lambs of Santa Inês breed through the following variables: total dry matter intake (TDMI), daily weight gain (DWG), total weight gain (TWG) and feed:gain ratio (FGR). It was used 16 lambs with initial weight of 18 kg and 4-6 months of age, under confinement during 98 days, distributed in individual boxes in order to form 4 groups of 4 animals, in a completely randomized design, with 4 replications, under the following diets: A) elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum. cv. Napier) ad libitum, at 45 days of age; B) fresh leaves of GS at 2% of body weight + elephant grass ad libitum; C) fresh leaves of GS at 4% of body weight + elephant grass ad libitum; D) fresh leaves of GS ad libitum. The GS and the elephant grass showed, respectively, the following chemical composition: 23.11 and 22.11% of DM; 24.11 and 12.00% of CP; 0.90 and 0.59% of Ca; 0.16 and 0.20% of P; 38.81 and 61.64% of NDF; 24.30 and 34.42% of ADF. It was not found significative differences (p>0.05) between TDMI of elephant grass (75.29 kg) and GS (65.83 kg) as lonely diets. On the other hand, the treatments T2 and T3 with mixed diets showed greater TDMI (p<0.05) than the ones with lonely diets with the values of 91.93 and 106.03 kg, respectively. The inclusion of GS leaves on all studied levels increased DWG and TWG (p<0.05) as compared to the one with elephant grass as lonely diet. However, the mixed diets T2 and T3 showed similar DWG and TWG values (p>0.05). The feed intake/weight gain ratios of T2, T3 and T4 treatments were similar (p>0.05), but the one for T1 diet was significantly greater than the others. GS fresh leaves as a lonely diet are consumed by growing lambs of Santa Inês breed. Their inclusion in diets with elephant grass increase body weight gain and improve feed intake/weight gain ratio.