Rumen degradability of sago by-products and their potential use in ruminant diets

Pin Chanjula 1 and Wanwisa Ngampongsai2

Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine the degradability of young sago
leaves (YSL), old sago leaves (OSL), young sago petiole (YSP), old sago petiole (OSP),
young sago fronds (YSF), old sago fronds (OSF), sago palm pith (SPP), residued sago
palm pith (RSPP), sago meal (SM) and ground corn (GC) using in situ technique. Three
ruminally fistulated indigenous bulls with an average weight of 200+25 kg were used to
determine in situ degradabilities of DM. Nine feed sources were weighted in nylon bags
(45-µm pore size) and incubated ruminally for 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h. The results
showed that effective degradability (ED) of DM of feed sources ranked from the highest
to the lowest; SM, SPP, RSPP, GC, OSL and OSP, respectively. (89.6, 62.2, 58.3, 56.3,
45.5 and 39.7, respectively). It was concluded that disappearance characteristic of SM
was the highest and it may potentially facilitate the achievement of optimal ruminal
availability of energy: protein especially with NPN for microbial protein synthesis.
Key words: Rumen degradability, sago by-products, ruminant diets, nylon bag technique
1
Ph.D. (Animal Science), Asst. Prof., Department of Technology and Industried, Faculty of Science and
Technology, Prince of Songkla University, 94000, Thailand. 2Dr. Agri. Sci. (Animal Science), Asst. Prof.,
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Natural Resources, Prince of Songkla University, 90112,
Thailand.
1
Corresponding author: P. Chanjula. Tel: +66-73-33-5115, Fax: +66-73-33-5130,
E-mail address: cpin_th@yahoo.com

Introduction
Crop residue and agro-industrial by-products are major sources of nutrients for
ruminant in developing countries particularly during the long dry season (Wanapat and
Devendra, 1990). During the last decades, use of theses by-products in animal nutrition
has increased rapidly due to several factors, such as increasing demand of food, greater
pressure for agricultural land use, rising cost of good quality feeds, pollution problems
and the realization of the wasting of enormous quantities of potential sources of
carbohydrates (Sundstol et al., 1993).
In southern Thailand, there are many kinds of crop residues and agro-industrial by
products. In swampy areas of the southern provinces i.e., Nakonsrithammarat, Phattalung,
Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, sago palm (Metroxylon sagu) is abundantly
available (FAO, 1983). By-products from sago palm include unextracted sago palm pith
(SPP), sago meal and residued sago palm pith (RSPP) (residue from extracted sago palm
pith). Sago meal (SM) is very low in protein but exceptionally high non-structural
carbohydrate. Soluble carbohydrates in sago meal ranged from 51 to 92.5 % (FAO,
1983). The meal is very digestible and can be fed to all classes of livestock. It has been
include up to 50 % in pig diets and 25 % in poultry diets (Anonymous, 2006). Sundried
sago palm pith contains 1.0 % of crude protein (CP), 23.1 % of neutral detergent fiber
(NDF) and 7.1 % of acid detergent fiber (ADF) (Tuen, 1992). It gives a similar
performance to that of sago meal when it is fed to cattle and older pig. While, the RSPP
contains more indigestible fiber component compared to the pith and according to its
nutrient evaluation, this by-product has a potential and could be utilized as feed for

Present at MSU on 6-09-2007 supported by Sago Research Project under collaboration with Department of Animal
Science, Faculty of Natural Resources, Prince of Songkla University Thailand, 90110.
 2

ruminant. The amount of this by-product is approximately 14 % of the total weight of the
SPP, but as a source of nutrients, it has limitations arising from low CP and mineral
contents. From a study carried out by Yadav and Mahyuddin (1991), it is shown that the
RSPP is low in CP (3.3 %), high in NDF (72.5 %) and ADF (25.8 %) contents. However,
limited information has been available on characteristics of dry matter (DM) and organic
matter (OM) degradation in the rumen of by-products from sago palm (SPP, RSPP and
SM) locally used for livestock in the tropics with special reference to Thailand. The
objective of this study was to evaluate degradability of sago palm pit, residued sago palm
pith and their by-products and other feedstuffs available in southern region, in the rumen
of southern indigenous cattle.
Materials and methods
Animal preparation:
Three southern indigenous bulls with average body weight (BW) of 200 ± 25 kg
were surgically fitted with ruminal fistular to determine in situ DM and OM degradability
of sago and sago by-products. The bulls were housed in individual pen. They were fed
with ruzi grass hay ad libitum and were supplemented with concentrate (about 13.7 %
CP) at 0.5% of BW (on DM basis). The diets were offered in two equal meals at 08.00
and 16.00 h. The bulls had free access to water and mineral blocks.
Diet preparation:
Sago leaves (young and old sago leaves), sago petiole or sago stem (young and
old sago petiole), sago fronds (young and old sago fronds) and by-products from sago
include sago palm pith, residued sago palm pith (residue from extracted sago palm pith)
and sago meal were collected from Songkhla and Pattani province. All samples were
ground to pass a 1 mm screen and stored for further chemical analysis and degradability
study.
Ruminal degradability study
The in sacco degradability was assessed by nylon bag (8 × 17 cm, pore size 45 ±
2 µm) technique (Ørskov and McDonald, 1979). Nylon bags were prepared by heat-
sealing pieces. Approximately 5 grams of old sago leaves, old sago petiole, sago palm
pith, residued sago palm pith and sago meal were weighted into previously dried (60 oC)
and tared bag. Bags are tied to a weighted chain and placed in the ventral rumen sac of
bulls approximately 2 hours after the morning feeding. All feeds were incubated
simultaneously in all animals using duplicate bags per feed at each time point and a blank
bag containing no samples for each removal time. Bags for each feed were removed after
2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours of incubation. Immediately after removal from the
rumen, bags were washed with cold tap water until the rinsed water was clear, gently
hand squeezed to remove excess water. Bags were dried for 72 hours at 60oC in a forced
air oven. All feed sample bags were collected to their corresponding blank. The 0 hour
incubation samples were washed and dried in a similar condition. The bags were
weighted and incubation residues were bulked by incubation time and then analyzed for
the disappearance rate of DM and OM.
Chemical composition analysis
The samples were analyzed for DM, ash, OM and CP according to AOAC (1990).
NDF and ADF were determined using the method of Goering and Van Soest (1970).
Data analysis
 3

Data for ruminal characteristics of DM and OM were fitted to the exponential

equation following the procedure described by Ørskov and McDonald (1979) and using
the NEWAY program (Chen, 1996).
P = a+b(1-e-ct)
Where,
P = disappearance rate at time t (%),
a = the intercept of the degradation curve at time zero (%),
b = the fraction of DM and OM which will be degraded when given sufficient time for
digestion in the rumen (%),
c= a rate constant of disappearance of fraction b (h-1), and
t = time of incubation (h).
The effective degradability (ED) of DM and OM were, therefore, calculated using
the following equation.
ED = a+b(c/(c+k))
Where k assuming the rate of particulate outflow from the rumen, k, is 0.05 h-1 by
equation of ∅rskov and McDonald (1979).
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for a completely randomized design (CRD) (Steel
and Torries, 1980) was performed on the data in the same incubation time as a separate
set following the ANOVA procedure of SAS (1998).
Model = Yij = µ + τi+ εij

Where Yij = observation in block of each time,

µ = overall mean, and
τi = feed sources, εij = residual.
Result and Discussion
Chemical composition of sago and sago by-products
The chemical composition of sago in terms of sago leaves (young and old), sago
petiole (young and old), sago frond (young and old), sago palm pith, sago meal and
residued sago palm pith was given in Table 1. Sago leaves composed of 95.33-95.62%
DM and contained average 8.13-8.25% CP, 55.04-57.15% NDF and 36.47-37.86% ADF,
respectively. Its CP and ADF contents were similar to those of some tropical grass i.e.,
para grass and ruzi grass at 45 days cutting interval (Wanapat and Devendra, 1999). The
petiole of sago contained 1.49-2.52% CP, 54.98-55.87% NDF and 36.42-37.02% ADF,
respectively. The chemical composition of sago frond (made of petiole and leaflets)
which contained 3.66-6.00 % CP, 54.43-58.05% NDF and 36.06-38.46% ADF,
respectively, were similar to CP contents of oil palm fronds (4.2 % CP) but were lower
ADF than oil palm fronds (50.9 % ADF) that reported by Ishida et al. (1992); Abu
Hassan et al. (1995); Alimon and Hair Bejo (1995). Consequently, NDF and ADF values
of those were remarkably low which indicated that the good feeding value for ruminants
in terms of feed intake and digestibility and might be another good roughage sources for
ruminant in southern Thailand.
Regarding chemical composition of sago by-products, sago palm pith and
residued sago palm pith composed of similar DM contents. The CP contents in these
 4

sources were low (0.31-2.14% CP) while OM contents were high (96.17-99.79%). The
CP contents in sago palm pith and residued sago palm pith in this study were similar to
report by Yadav and Mahyuddin (1991); Tuen (1992) who found that sago pith and sago
residue (by-product of starch extraction) contained 1.4-3.3% CP. Likewise, from a study
carried out by Yadav and Mahyuddin (1991), it was shown that CP content of sago meal
had very low CP content (0.21%) but, its OM content was high (99.79 %). Based on
chemical composition of sago and sago by-products, it could be concluded that sago
leave and sago frond might be utilized as good roughage sources for ruminant in the
South while sago palm pith; residued sago palm pith and sago meal might be use as
energy sources in concentrate.
Table 1. Chemical composition of sago palm leaves, sago palm petiole, sago palm fronds and
sago palm by-products for in situ degradability study (% DM basis).
Items DM Ash OM3 CP CF EE NFE3 NDF ADF
% DM basis
Sago palm pith (SPP) 86.08 3.83 96.17 1.44 7.09 0.12 87.53 19.51 12.87
Residued sago palm pith
(RSPP) 86.79 4.81 95.19 2.14 7.61 1.15 84.28 20.01 13.21
Sago meal (SM) 84.36 0.21 99.79 0.31 0.12 0.47 98.88 0.10 -*
Young sago leaves (YSL) 95.33 3.62 96.38 8.25 38.93 1.31 47.89 55.04 36.47
Old sago leaves (OSL) 95.62 5.35 94.65 8.13 40.59 1.62 44.30 57.15 37.86
Young sago petiole (YSP) 94.83 5.68 94.32 2.52 51.03 0.90 39.87 54.98 36.42
Old sago petiole (OSP) 95.03 3.83 96.17 1.49 56.79 1.53 36.36 55.87 37.02
Young sago frond (YSF) 94.33 3.68 96.32 6.00 43.19 0.64 46.50 54.43 36.06
Old sago frond (OSF) 96.66 4.13 95.87 3.66 46.47 1.19 44.56 58.05 38.46
* ND = not determined.
1
DM: dry matter; OM: organic matter; CP: crude protein; EE: ether extract; NFE: nitrogen free extract;
NSC: nonstructural carbohydrate; CF: crude fiber; NDF: neutral detergent fiber; ADF: acid detergent fiber
and ADL: acid detergent lignin.
3
Estimated: OM = 100 – Ash; NFE = 100-(CP+CF+EE+Ash).

In sacco degradation characteristics of sago products

Ruminal DM disappearances of feed sources are shown in figure 1 and Table 2.
Ruminal DM disappearance increased with rumen incubation time for all feed sources (0
to 72 h). SM had the greatest values at all times and the lowest DM disappearance was
found with old sago petiole (OSP) and old sago leaves (OSL). Amount of DM
disappearance characteristics ranked from the highest to the lowest of degradation rate (c)
as follows: SM, OSL, RSPP, OSP, SPP and ground corn (GC), respectively. Zero-h to 72
h of DM degradation rate (c) of SM (19.5% h-1) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than all
other feed sources, especially SPP and GC. While RSPP, OSL, OSP, SPP and GC were
degraded to a similar extent, but except OSL significantly higher (P<0.05) than GC. DM
disappearance characteristic of feed sources could be divided into three groups. SM
which was rapidly degraded, while RSPP, SPP and GC were generally intermediate and
OSL and OSP were slightly low degraded among those of feed sources.
The amount of DM degraded by 12 h in situ for SM was greater than 90-95% of
total, suggesting that most of the DM in this energy was available to ruminal microbes.
At 12 h, less than 65% of DM in SPP, RSPP, OSL, OSP and GC had been degraded.
Assuming normal outflow rate for particulate matter from the rumen (∅rskov, 1982), it
may be concluded that considerable DM from feed sources (RSPP, SPP and GC) would
escape from rumen degradation and be available for intestinal digestion. In our
 5

experiment, however, disappearance from nylon bag did not reveal effects on the total
tract disappearance and the intestinal digestibility of feeds. These may differ among feed
sources and the possibility of an overprotection effect will be further investigated in
studies of intestinal digestibility using a mobile bag technique (De Boer et al., 1987).

120
Degradation curve
100
% DM disapperance

80

60

RSPP
40 SPP
OSL
OSP
20
SM
GC
0
0 2 4 6 8 12 24 48 72
Hours of incubation

Figure 1. In situ DM disappearances of feed sources (RSPP = residued sago palm pith; SPP =
sago palm pith; OSL = old sago leaves; OSP = old sago petiole; SM = sago meal; GC =
ground corn) at various hours of incubation.

The degradable fraction (a), potential degradability (a+b) and also degradation
rate constant (c) of DM were highest (P<0.05) on SM (64.60, 99.2 and 0.19, respectively)
as compared with all feed sources.
The effective degradability (ED) of DM at outflow rate of 0.05/h of SM (89.6%)
was highest in all feed sources (39.7-62.2%). The finding ED of DM was similar value as
compared with sweet potato (88.1-89.8%; sweet, white and purple sweet potato), but
lower than cassava chip (93.4%) that reported by Chanjula et al. (2003). The differences
could be attributed to starch difference and was greatly dependent upon sources and
chemical composition (Huntington, 1997).
Moreover, the differences in rate and extent digestion have been attributed to
lower proportion of amylose content in cassava when compared with sago meal and
ground corn (17, 26 and 28%, respectively) those reported by Cone and Wolters (1990);
Morton (2006). While RSPP and GC were similar value of ED (58.3 and 59.3%,
respectively) but lower than SPP (62.2%). In the present study, SPP or RSPP could be
used to replace GC with SPP in ruminant diets. Lower ED of DM than other feeds were
found in OSL and OSP. The differences could be attributed to starch content, part of
plant and chemical composition. Vitti et al. (1999) reported that in sacco dry matter
disappearance was highly negative correlated with NDF and ADF. OSL and OSP in this
study having a potential for roughage source of ruminants.
 6

Table 2. Disappearance from nylon bags and in sacco DM degradation characteristics of sago
palm and sources of by-product in southern indigenous bulls.
Parameters RSPP 1 SPP OSL OSP SM GC
DM disappearance (%) at different hour of rumen incubation
0 17.97 18.25 12.77 11.05 64.61 21.03
2 38.78 40.50 16.53 14.58 66.66 40.04
4 45.31 55.20 25.06 18.65 76.33 42.48
6 47.84 50.61 29.58 21.94 81.95 44.22
8 49.61 52.41 35.35 26.54 91.97 45.82
12 61.06 64.98 44.84 42.98 93.91 61.73
24 66.79 69.64 59.88 53.42 97.74 70.19
48 71.33 73.99 67.93 60.80 99.23 79.30
72 78.12 84.83 69.08 66.77 99.84 85.18
DM degradation characteristics (%)
a 18.0c 18.3c 12.0d 11.1e 64.6a 21.0b
c a b
b 57.9 63.9 57.4 54.8c 34.5d 64.7a
c 0.070bc 0.060cd 0.075b 0.065bc 0.195a 0.053d
d c e
a+b 75.7 81.6 69.5 64.8f 99.2a 85.8b
2
Effective degradability (%)
0.05 58.3c 62.2b 45.5d 39.7e 89.6a 56.3c
a-e
within rows not sharing a common superscripts are significantly different (P<0.05).
1
RSPP = residued sago palm pith; SPP = sago palm pith; OSL = old sago leaves; OSP = old sago petiole;
SM = sago meal; GC = ground corn.
2
Effective degradability at outflow rate in the rumen (fraction/ h).

Optimal rumen ecology is an essential for microbial digestion of fiber to

improving fermentation end-products for ruminants use, as reported by Van soest (1994). At the
end of each hours of incubation, rumen fluid samples were collected by a syringe tube at
each removal time. Then, the pH and temperature of the rumen samples was measured
immediately by pH and temperature meter. The average ruminal pH and temperature
were 6.9 and 38.9 oC, respectively. No difference in ruminal pH and temperature were
noted among bulls (Table 3). Ruminal pH ranged from 6.3 to 7.2 which have been
reported as optimal for microbial digestion of fiber (Hoover, 1986).
Table 3. Ruminal pH and temperature (oC) in southern indigenous bulls (standard ± means
deviation).
h post feeding Temperature pH
0 39.0 ± 0.0 7.2 ± 0.3
2 39.3 ± 0.6 7.1 ± 0.6
4 39.7 ± 0.6 6.9 ± 0.6
6 39.0 ± 0.0 6.9 ± 0.2
8 38.0 ± 0.0 6.9 ± 0.1
12 39.0 ± 0.0 6.3 ± 0.7
24 38.7 ± 0.0 6.7 ± 0.1
48 38.0 ± 0.6 6.9 ± 0.2
72 39.0 ± 0.0 7.0 ± 0.2
overall means 38.9 ± 0.2 6.9 ± 0.3
 7

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The results of this study demonstrate that the ruminal disappearance
characteristics of feed sources differed among feeds and SM had the greatest values at all
time. Amount of DM disappearance characteristics ranked from the highest to the lowest
of degradation rate (c) as follows: SM, RSPP, OSL, OSP, SPP and GC. Furthermore, diet
formulation using these values in vivo feeding trials would offer more useful information.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to express their most sincere gratitude and appreciation to
the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Department
of Livestock Development (DLD) of Thailand and Department of Animal Science,
Faculty of Natural Resource, Prince of Songkla University (PSU) for their financial
support of the research and the use of facilities, respectively.
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