Digestibility of forage diets of White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginanus, Hays) using different

ruminal fluid inocula

Introduction

There is a need to determine the nutritional quality of forage consumed by White-tailed deer in their
natural habitat so that management strategies can be developed. Measurement of in vitro dry
matter digestibility (IVDMD) can be used as an indicator of the nutritional quality of diets for these
deer. However, measurements of IVDMD using ruminal fluid from deer is expensive, difficult and
time consuming, therefore, inocula from domestic ruminant donors have been used as an
alternative. In vitro digestibility technique are fast and provide an excellent way to evaluate a large
number of forages using a small amount of sample. The aim of this study was to compare inoculum
from domestic ruminants and deer (captive and feral) on in vitro digestibility of forages consumed
by feral white-tailed deer in the Sierra Fría forest reserve in Aguascalientes, México.

Material san Methods

Diets of white tailed deer were previously identified by microhistologia analyses by Clemente in
Sierra Fría forest reserve (oak-pine), located in the State of Aguascalientes, México. During summer
herbs constituted 49% of the diet and shrubs 45%. During fall shrubs were consumed most (39%)
followed by fruits (35%), herbs (15.5%) and tree leaves (10%). During winter also shrubs were the
predominant component of diet (61%) followed by herbs (20%) and tree leaves (18%). Consumption
of grasses was negligible during all the seasons. Botanical composition of these diets is given in Table
1. In order to simulate diets, vegetation was collected in July, Octeber and December to represent
summer, fall or winter vegetation. Leaves and fruits from arboreal and browses were sampled at 1.6
m and lower frobs and grasses were clipped at 1.5 cm. Only live material was collected.

The arboreal species collected were Quercus microphyla, Q. Rugosa and Juniperus deppeana. The
browse found in the diet was only Arctostaphylus pungens. Six grasses were collected: Lycurus
phleoides, Stipa virescens, Muhlembergia rígida, M. pubescens, M. emersleyi and Aristida
orcuttiana.

In total 31 plant species were collected. Samples for chemical analyses were collected within 18
quadrants (1 x 1 m) for grasses and shrubs and from 9 quadrants (20 x 20 m) for trees and shrubs .
All the quadrants were randomly distributed in the study área. From the 31 species collected, only
19 were present in the wild deer diets.

Because of the selectivity of deer for trees and shrubs, only leaves were analyzed. In the case of
herbs and grasses, complete plants were analyzad (stems and leaves). Samples of forages were dried
(55 C) at the forest reserve and carried to laboratory in paper bags with small holes for future
analysis. These were ground and mixed (1kg) in the proportion of each diet reported by Clemente.
Dry matter, organic matter, nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous were determined with procedures
of the AOAC (1980) and neutral detergent fiber with the method of Van Soest. In vitro dry matter
and organic digestibilities (IVDMD, IVOMD) were determined with the technique of Tilley and Terry
(1963). All seasonal forage collections were analyzed together. In vitro digestibilities of wild deer was
conducted in laboratory closet to the forest resever, whereas the digestibilities with inocula from
captive deer, goat and cow fed alfalfa were conducted in the nutrition laboratory at different times
for each inoculum. Digestibilities were also determined using ruminal fluid from a feral female deer
harvested at the Sierra Fría forest. In all cases, ruminal fluid was transported at 39 C in an insulated
container flushed with CO2. There was a máximum of 1h between the collection and inoculation of
incubations in the laboratory. With the exception of the feral deer, all ruminal fluid was collected
16h post-prandial via rumen cannula in the cow and sondae with the captive deer and goat. Captive
deer received an intramuscular dose of xilacin hydrochloride (1.5 ml/25kg BW) before the inocula
collection. Fresh ruminal fluid was strained through four layers of surgical gauze before mixing with
urea (1 g/l) to ensure that ammonia nitrogen was not limiting microbial activity during the
incubation.

Data were analyzed with a completely randomized desing using the GLM procedure of SAS (1988).
The model included inoculum source, family or group of plants and season and its interactions.
Means were compared with the Tukey test.

Results and Discussion

The chemical composition of the composite diets during the three seasons (Table 1) revealed an
increasing trend of dry matter and decreasing tred of crude protein contents as the proportion of
tree leaves and shrubs increased and that of herbs decreased in the diet. There were no interactions
among inocula and substrates incubated. The source of inoculum did not affect IVDMD or IVOMD,
however, Winter diet had lower digestibility than summer and fall (Table 2). No differences (P>0.05)
were detected among effect of inoculum sources on digestibility of the plant family groups (Table 3).

The IVDMD of diets indicate that the habitat has a por nutritional condition during winter and it is
fair during summer and autumn. Urness (1973) has ranked an excellent habitat when IVDMD is over
50% good among 40-50%, fair 30-40% and poor when it is below 30%. Other evaluations at north
Mexico reported IVDMD around 40%. It is important to mention that deer population density in the
reserve is low. This may be associated whit low nutritional value of foreges due to protein
deficiencies and low digestibility of forages as well as inappropriate management strategies.

Some studies have shown that similar digestibility values are obtained despite using ruminal fluid
sources from different ruminant species. However, others have found differences in IVDMD values
that appear to be associated with the basal diet of the donor or with variations in incubation
conditions.

Ward (1971) reported that inocula from cattle or elk fed alfalfa diet or from grazing wild elk on their
native range had no effect on IVDMD of forbs and shrubs. However, in this case, there were
differences due to different rumen fluids on the apparent digestibility of grasses. In case of deer, as
grasseswere not the main source of forage in diet, the tendency of lower digestion of gramminae
could be explained. Miranda have reported differences in cellulolytic activity of bacteria isolated
form domestic ruminants fed on the same roughage. In this study, feeding ruminants with alfalfa
allowed an appropriate estimation of the digestibility observed in feral deer and correlation
coefficients between digestibility values obtained with feral deer and domestic ruminants were high.

In the in vitro digestibility procedure, several potential sources of variation (animal variation,
standardization, replication, storage time of rumen fluid) need to be considered. Assay replication
can be a problema when wild animals fluid collected may not be enough to analyse a large number
of simples even when more that one sample is incubated at a time. The hunting or immobilization
of wildlife to obtain ruminal fluid is not practical or desirable particularly when domestic ruminants
are available. The use of ruminal fluid from domestic animals allows the replication of the incubation
process which improves the estimation of digestibility.

In vitro digestibility determination is an analytical method which has been used to estimate
nutritional quality of vegetation in white-tailed deer´s habitat previously providing useful
information for managing natural populations.

As expected, there were differences among forages or family group. Gramminae presented similar
IVDMD and IVOMD for cow and goat inoculum, whereas, deer (captive or feral) showed lower values
(Table 3). There is a great variety of vegetable species consumed by deer in Mexico, showing a higher
preference for browses and forbs than grasses.

Ruminal fluid from domestic rumminants can be used to study in vitro digestibility of deer diets. Our
study shows that despite its limitation, in vitro technique can be used to compare forages and
provide nutritional information for appropriate habitat management for white tailed deer.