Dietary Hog Plum (Spondias pinnata (L.f ) Kurz) Could Modulate Fermentation Process, and Feed Digestibility, As Well As and Reduce Protozoal Population: In Vitro Study

The research was to elucidate the influences of dietary hog plum supplementation on nutrient digestibility, fermentation characteristics, protozoal population and kinetics of gas production. Completely randomized design (CRD) was used and the treatments were 6 levels of hog plum supplementation at 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mg DM. Hog plum consisted of CP at 5.6% DM and saponins was found about 9.4%. Supplementation of hog plum did not alter gas production from the soluble fractions (a), gas production from the insoluble fraction (b) and the potential extent of gas production (a+b) and gas production rate constants for the insoluble fraction (c) (P>0.05). Furthermore, cumulative gas production from 96 h of incubation did not changed by hog plum complementation and were ranged from 154.7 to 158.8 ml/ 0.5 g DM. Ruminal pH of 2 h, 4 h after incubation and average pH were not significantly different among various doses of hog plum complementation (P>0.05). Average NH3 -N concentration were highest increased when hog plum supplementation at 2.0 to 2.5 mg and increased by 16.4 to 17.5%, respectively compared to no supplemented group. At 2 h after incubation, there were no changed on protozoal counts (P>0.05), whereas the reduction of protozoal counts were found when added hog plum at 4 h after incubation (P<0.05). In addition, mean concentration of protozoa was reduced when increasing doses of added hog plum (P<0.05). Supplementation of hog plum at 2.0 to 2.5 mg could reduce protozoal population by 71.2% when compared to no supplemented group. Supplementation of hog plum did not alter IVDMD and IVOMD and were average ranged from 57.1 to 58.5% DM and 62.4 to 64.1% DM, respectively (P>0.05). It could be summarized that supplementation hog plum did not adversary affect ruminal fermentation, kinetic of gas and in vitro digestibility, whereas population of protozoa was decreased when supplementation hog plum up to 2.0 mg.