Summary of Disertation in Animal sciences: Improved utilisation of bauhinia acuminata for goat production in Lao PDR

The study aimed at the utilization of locally available feed resources for increasing growth performance and reducing enteric methane emissions from goats in Lao PDR. The specific objectives were following: to evaluate the of water spinach as a source of high soluble protein and biochar on methane production in an in vitro system with substrate of Bauhinia acuminata or Guazuma ulmifolia leaves; to evaluate the effect of water spinach as a source of high soluble protein and biochar on feed intake, digestibility, N retention, methane emission and growth performance of goats fed Bauhinia acuminata foliages plus molasses or dried cassava root chip as the basal diets; to examine the effect of replacing water spinach by cassava foliage and/or brewer’s grain on feed intake, digestibility, N retention and growth performance of goat fed Bauhinia acuminata plus dried cassava root chip as the basal diets; to compare the sweet or bitter of cassava leaves and biochar on gas production, methane content of the gas and methane ml/g DM digested in an in vitro incubation.