Dr. Ajith K S.FEBINA K. P2024-05-312024-05-312023-01-23https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810209526A study was undertaken to develop a simple method for nutritive evaluation of feeds and fodder given to wild ungulates. Initially a data on type of feed and fodder given wild ungulates like sambar deer, hog deer, black buck and spotted deer kept at State museum and zoo, Thrissur was collected. The in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and metabolizable energy (ME) yield of wild ungulates were assessed by using their dung as inoculum source for in vitro gas production technique (IVGPT) and compared it with faecal inoculum of control animal (cattle). The survey on the feed and fodder offered to wild ungulates revealed that green gram, bengal gram, cotton seed and cattle pellet feed were the major concentrate source and green grass and jack leaves were the major roughage sources offered to them. The IVOMD of feeds and fodders ranged from 33.22±0.19 to 66.54±0.25, 34.32±0.17 to 67.28±0.16, 37.78±0.30 to 65.25±0.71 and 32.14±0.09 to 66.16±0.34 per cent in sambar deer, hog deer, black buck and spotted deer, respectively. The metabolizable energy yield calculated by the gas production in control animal, sambar deer, black buck, spotted deer and hog deer ranged from 8.35 to 10.28 MJ/kg DM for green gram; 8.69 to 10.34 MJ/kg DM for bengal gram; 4.52 to 4.91 MJ/kg DM for cotton seed; 6.05 to 6.24 MJ/kg DM for pellet feed; 5.61 to 5.88 MJ/kg DM for green grass and 6.18 to 6.28 MJ/kg DM for jack leaves. Higher IVOMD and ME yield was obtained for green gram and bengal gram in all wild ungulates than control animal. Whereas, the sambar deer faecal inoculum showed higher IVOMD and ME for cotton seed substrates than control animal and spotted deer faecal inoculum but was lower than that of hog deer faecal inoculum. For green grass, control animal produced higher ME yield and IVOMD than black buck and sambar deer. Whereas the IVOMD and ME yield of jackfruit leaves were similar between species. On assessment of nutritional status of wild ungulates under study, it was revealed that the CP requirements of sambar deer, black buck and spotted deer were satisfied, while the TDN requirement of spotted deer and sambar deer has not been met. From the research study, it can be concluded that nutritional evaluation of wild ungulates can be predicted by IVGPT employing dung as substitute source of rumen fluid inoculum. The difference in in vitro fermentation parameters between different species may be due to the different faecal microbiota composition between the species.EnglishThesis