© 2021 JETIR February 2021, Volume 8, Issue 2 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) JETIR2102195 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) www.jetir.org 1633 Investigation On The Potential Of In Vitro Gas Production Technique For Assessing The Nutritive Value Of Feeds Consumed By Asian Elephants Nandana Chandrasekhar 1 , Ajith K. S. 2 , Ally K. 3 , Deepa A. 4 , Rajeev T. S. 5 1 MVSc Scholar, 2 Assistant Professor, 3 Professor and Head, 4 Assistant Professor, 5 Associate Professor Dept. of Animal Nutrition, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Thrissur, Kerala, India Abstract : The intricacies in the digestion and metabolism of nutrients are less understood and it is very difficult to assess the nutritive value of feed offered to elephants in wild as well as in captivity. Elephant being a hind gut fermenter, a novel technique was adopted to investigating the potentiality of using In vitro gas production technique (IVGPT) to study the digestibility of organic matter and metabolizable energy content in the feed fed to elephants under captivity using elephant dung as inoculum. IVGPT was carried out as per standard method suggested by Menke et al., 1979. The gas production of samples was recorded after 24, 48 and 72 hours of fermentation. In vitro organic matter digestibility and metabolizable energy obtained was higher for concentrates and lower for roughages. In vitro organic matter digestibility and metabolizable energy respectively of grass, palm leaves, straw, jack leaves, plantain stem, maize and ragi were 25.74, 28.60, 14.72, 27.95, 30.54, 67.87 and 55.37 per cent, respectively and 3.75, 4.15, 2.08, 4.06, 4.52, 10.26 and 8.35 MJ/kg DM respectively. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the efficiency of utilizing elephant dung as source of inoculum to predict nutritive value of feeds fed to elephants. Keywords Invitro gas production, Elephant dung, Invitro organic matter digestibility. I. INTRODUCTION In vitro gas production test (IVGPT) is a simple and economical method to predict the energy value of feeds and fodders and digestibility when compared to slow and costly In vivo methods. IVGPT is mainly conducted in ruminants using rumen fluid as inoculum. Macheboeuf et al. (1998) predicted organic matter digestibility of forages in horses using horse faecal inoculum. Considering this, In vitro gas production tests using elephant dung may help to predict the energy values of feeds and fodder since, elephants are also hind gut fermenters like horses and digestive physiology is also similar. Even many of the nutritional requirements of elephants are directly extrapolated from horse’s dietary requirements (Ullrey et al.,1997). This study was conducted to understand whether, elephant dung can be used as the source of inoculum to conduct In vitro gas production test and thereby predict the organic matter digestibility of feed and fodder. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS Samples of feeds and fodder that are generally been consumed by the elephants like maize grain, ragi grain, palm leaves, grass, plantain stem, jack leaves and straw were taken and analyzed for the proximate principles as per standard procedure (AOAC, 2016). Concentrate feed and forage samples used in the study were ground at 1-mm particle size and 200 mg sample were taken and introduced into calibrated glass syringes (100 ml). The pistons were lubricated with vaseline. Elephant dung was collected soon after voiding and after removing the external layer, faecal sample was collected in a pre-warmed flask containing warm water at 39˚ C. The buffer solution was prepared as described by Menke and Steingass (1988). Fresh faeces (600 g) were blended with 1.2 litres of buffer solution in a mixer for 3 minutes and the faecal fluid was filtered through four layers of cheese cloth into a warm flask (39˚C). The syringes were then incubated at 39˚C with 30 ml fermentation medium. All procedures were done under anaerobic conditions. The gas production of samples was recorded after 24, 48 and 72 hours of fermentation. The gas production was measured in triplicate for blanks and the feed samples.