International Journal of Agricultural Research and Review

An overview of tannins rich plants as alternative supplementation on ruminant animals: A Review

Abstract

Accepted 5^th May, 2015

Sheep, cattle and goats are domestic ruminants of significant economic interest in the Southern Africa region. Their nutrition depended on grasses and browse plant species, some of these plants are reported to possess secondary compounds known as tannins. Also, these compounds are known to have properties that are both beneficial and disadvantageous towards animal production. Rural farmers tend to experience severe feed shortage during winter. Therefore, proper use of trees and shrubs (containing tannins) as supplementary feed by rural farmers will be beneficial. Rural farmers cannot afford to purchase commercial supplementary feeds. Hence, there is a need for alternative supplementary feeding. Moreover, use of tannin rich plants by rural farmers will reduce gastrointestinal, and in turn, it will enhance ruminant animal production on the rural areas. This review aims to find out how beneficial tannins rich plants to ruminant animal production.

Keywords: Tannins; ruminant; animal production; rural farmers.