Improvement of plantain leaves nutritive value in goats by urea treatment and nitrogen supplements

Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) cultivation leaves a large quantity of residue after harvest which can be used in goats’ diets. In order to better assess them, apparent fecal digestibility (Df) of five diets was studied in vivo on 20 castrated Creole bucks, in individual digestibility cage, during three periods using a completely random design. These diets consisted of sun-dried leaves (DL), sun-dried urea treated leaves (DUTL, 5 kg of urea per 100 kg of sun-dried leaves during 90 days with 60 kg of water), protein nitrogen supplemented diet: sun-dried leaves + hoopvine (Trichostigma octandrum, L) leaves (DLH, DL: 61.4% + hoopvine leaves: 38.6%), non-protein nitrogen supplemented diet: sun-dried leaves + urea (DLU, DL: 98.2%+ U: 1.8%), and fresh leaves (FL). Diets were distributed to meet maintenance needs of the bucks for 21 days included 14 days for adaptation. Offered, left over diets and feces were weighed daily and samples were taken for laboratory analysis. Results showed that intake and Df of DL were very low and allowed only a digestible organic matter (OM) of 9.0 g/kg P0.75, not enough to satisfy maintenance energy requirement in goats. No significant improvement of OM intake and digestibility of plantain leaves was showed with addition of urea, while supplementation of hoopvine leaves allowed a significant increase of intake (from 30.0 to 40.8 g/kg P0.75) and Df (from 29.8% to 40.9%) (p<0.05). However, digestible OM intake for DLH diet was insufficient to meet energy requirement for maintenance. FL diet allowed an OM Df of 40.7%, comparable to DLH. DUTL, which OM Df was 45.1%, was the only diet consumed in sufficient amount to meet the bucks’ maintenance needs (22.9 g of digestible OM/kg P0.75). Urea treatment of plantain leaves is the best treatment among those tested for increasing nutritive value of this forage in goats.