Abstract

MAZORRA, Carlos et al. Aceptabilidad relativa de las principales especies de plantas que componen las coberturas citrícolas de la CPA "José Martí". Zootecnia Trop. [online]. 2002, vol.20, n.3, pp.341-355. ISSN 0798-7269.

In recent research it has been demonstrated that the presence of the legume Teramnus labialis, in citric covering, can reduce the brousing of sheeps to this plantation. However, this result could be deterrninated by the animal previous adaptation to the consumption of this plant. On the other hand, previous research has not been able to deterrnine how many citrus leaves could be affected by animal browsing. We conducted two experiments with:(a) to characterize the acceptability of the T .labialis by ovine in relationship with other plants, including orange branches and (b) to deterrnine the quantity orange leaves that can be affected by the ovine browsing in a certain unit of time. The first experiment was a preference test among five different plants (T. labialis, M. coromandelianum, N. wightii, D. annulatum and Citrus sinensis var. Valencia), that were located in four pens with three Pelibuey lambs in each one. We determinated the preference index (IP) shown by each offered plant. Both legumes (T. labialis and N. wightii) and M. coromandelianum showed the highest palatability values among the evaluated plants, although the preference va1ues maintained variation among weeks. The second experiment was an ingestive behavior trial of orange branches and we used six lambs from the previous experiment. We calculated: (1) citric leaves consumed totally, (2) intensity of affectation, (3) percentage of consumed totally leaves, biten and leaves fallen to the floor, (4) bite rate, (5) intake rate (leaves minl), (6) bite size. We found that the intensity of affectation for lambs is in the range of 8 to 17 leaves minl with va1ue means of 12 affected leaves and a maximum of 21 leaves min^-1. We also demonstrated that the intake rate and bite rate constituted apparent values from the tota1 affectation to the plantation.

Keywords : Acceptability; preference; palatability; sheep; leguminous; citric.