Effect of Mid-Term Dietary Administration of the Caesalpinia coriaria Extract on the Sustainable Mitigation of Equine Fecal Methane, Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen Sulfide Production

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the dietary administration of the Caesalpinia coriaria (CC) extract for 30 days on in vitro fecal greenhouse gases production. Fecal samples, as inoculums, were collected from horses given daily 0- (Fecal 0), 60- (Fecal 60) and 120- (Fecal 60) mL CC aqueous extract per animal. The extract dose was mixed with the morning feeding diet at 6:00 h for each horse. During incubation, 0-, 0.6-, 1.2- and 1.8-mL CC extracts were added to the basal diet which was fed to horses (as subtract) and evaluated with each fecal type. Feces from the horses given no CC extract produced the lowest (P = .0014) methane while the fecal from horses given CC produced more methane . It was also observed that all CC doses linearly (P = .0457) produced more methane than the control. Furthermore, Fecal 0 was more efficient and produced less methane for every unit of metabolizable energy, organic matter, and short chain fatty acids while Fecal 60 was the least efficient. Production of H2S showed that feces of equine orally give 60 mL/day CC produced the highest while Fecal 0 and Fecal 120 were similar. Fecal type x dose showed that 0 mL/g DM produced the highest H2S while 1.8 mL/g DM produced the lowest. Thus, based on gas production, H2S, CO and CH4, feeding horses with 60 mL/day of CC with or without 0.6 mL/g DM of CC extract is recommended for the sustainable mitigation of greenhouse gases emission in horses.