The effects of condensed tannins from Desmodium intortum and Calliandra calothyrsus on protein and carbohydrate digestion in sheep and goats.

A factorial experiment was conducted to study the effects of condensed tannins (CT) from the tropical legumes Desmodium intortum and Calliandra calothyrsus on the digestion and utilization of protein and carbohydrate in sheep and goats. CT-free Centrosema pubescens was also fed for comparison with the CT legumes, and each legume was included (300 g/kg DM) in a basal diet of pangola grass (Digitaria decumbens). Pangola grass alone was used as a control diet. There were no significant (P > 0.05) differences between sheep and goats for the efficiency of digestion of N (0.574, SE 0.013), organic matter (OM; 0.519, SE 0.010), neutral-detergent fibre (NDF; 0.524, SE 0.011) and acid-detergent fibre (ADF; 0.407, SE 0.016). Diets containing desmodium and calliandra were digested less well in the rumen (64 and 62% of total OM digested) when compared with the pangola and centrosema diets (74 and 73% of total OM digested in rumen). There was an apparent net gain of 30% in ADF across the digestive tract of sheep and goats given calliandra, and this gain was ascribed to the formation of 'artifact' fibre as a result of fibre-tannin interaction. Overall, inclusion of legume at 300 g/kg in the diet significantly increased (P < 0.05) the concentration of acetic acid and decreased butyric acid concentration in the rumen fluid of sheep and goats. Significantly higher proportions of dietary N apparently reached the abomasum of animals given the diets containing desmodium (50%) and calliandra (56%) when compared with animals given the centrosema and pangola diets (35%). Sheep and goats given the CT diets also had higher excretions of faecal N. This increment of faecal N (14%) did not affect post-rumen N digestion (P > 0.05) since animals given CT diets absorbed more N (19%) per kg total OM digested than those given the control diets. It was concluded that whilst the low levels of CT provided in desmodium (1.0%) and calliandra (2.3%) diets protected dietary protein from degradation in the rumen, there were no overall beneficial or detrimental effects of CT in these diets for sheep or goats. A method was developed to categorize CT into fractions representative of their forms (free, protein-bound, and fibre-bound) during the digestion process. A quantitative model of CT metabolism during passage through the digestive tract was developed from the measured exchanges of CT between free, protein-bound and fibre-bound pools in the rumen and lower digestive tract. CT interchange mainly occurred in the reticulo-rumen of both animal species. Desmodium and calliandra free CT showed net losses of 68 and 78% in the rumen respectively and 57 and 68% of the fibre-bound CT was lost in the same site for sheep and goats respectively. However, protein-bound CT increased across the rumen by 73 and 56% for both animal species. Post-rumen losses of the total CT abomasal flow were 86 and 83% (free CT) for sheep and goats respectively, 70 and 66% (protein-bound CT), whilst 28% loss of fibre-bound CT occurred in sheep and goats respectively.