2024-03-28T18:28:18Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/96652018-08-27T09:46:24Zcom_10261_63com_10261_6col_10261_316
The effect of rumen adaptation to oxalic acid on selection of oxalic-acid-rich plants by goats
Duncan, Alan J.
Frutos, Pilar
Young, Sheila A.
Diet selection
Oxalic acid
Rumen detoxification
7 pages, 4 figures.
Rumen microbial degradation is an important route for detoxification of secondary plant
compounds encountered in the diets of free-grazing ruminants. Exposure to diets containing
particular secondary plant compounds can lead to increased rates of secondary compound
degradation in the rumen. An experiment was conducted to determine whether rumen adaptation
to oxalic acid would influence the diet selection of goats offered choices between plant species
differing in their oxalic acid content. Twelve adult female goats were divided into two groups of
six animals each. One group received a daily oral dose, in gelatin capsules, of 0.6 mmol oxalic
acid/kg live weight per d throughout the experiment while the other group received placebos
consisting of empty gelatin capsules. After an adaptation period of 8 d, the animals were allowed
to graze a mixture of spinach (rich in oxalic acid) and cabbage (low in oxalic acid) for 7 h/d on
two consecutive days per week during four consecutive 1-week periods. Intervening days were
spent on grass pasture. Diet composition and intake were measured using cuticular wax n-alkanes
as internal markers. Results showed that adapted goats included a higher proportion of spinach in
their diet (P<0.05) although absolute intakes of spinach were the same for the two groups.
Goats in the oxalic-acid-adapted group consumed less cabbage than control animals (P<0.05)
suggesting that adaptation to oxalic acid at the rumen level may have interfered with detoxification
of cabbage-derived secondary plant compounds. Voluntary intake increased progressively
through the four experimental periods (P<0.001) with a tendency for higher intakes
among control than among adapted animals (P<0.1). The experiment demonstrates how
differences in the rate of degradation of secondary plant compounds may influence diet selection
in ruminants.
Pilar Frutos is grateful to the Spanish Council for Scientific
Research (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientÃficas,
CSIC, Spain) for the provision of a postdoctoral grant.
Thanks are due to the many colleagues at MLURI who
assisted in planting out the experimental plots and to Luc
Chaverot for invaluable help with weeding. Pat Moberly
conducted the proximate analyses of the herbage. A. M.
Sibbald, I. J. Gordon and J. A. Milne made useful comments on draft manuscripts. The work was funded by the Scottish
Office Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department.
Peer reviewed
2009-01-16T11:51:58Z
2009-01-16T11:51:58Z
2000
artÃculo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
British Journal of Nutrition 83(1): 59-65 (2000)
0007-1145
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/9665
10.1017/S000711450000009X
en
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S000711450000009X
open
98034 bytes
application/pdf
Cambridge University Press