Leucaena leaf meal and forage in Thailand
1983
Manidool, C. (Ministry of Agriculture, Bangkok (Thailand). Division of Animal Nutrition)
This paper deals with leucaena as a component of animal feed production in Thailand. Leucaena for forage is promoted throughout the country in a backyard pasture scheme. The compound feed for swine and poultry usually contains 3-5% leucaena leaf meal, but that for cattle can safely include 15%. There are 19 leaf meal mills in the country, producing approximately 6 x 10 to the fourth power t annually. The quality of the product is low, and protein content in leaf meal samples ranges from 11.2% to 21.5%, although the pure leaves may have as much as 17-28%. Average mimosine content in the leaves is 3-5%, with great variation between species. Toxicity from mimosine and its derivative DHP has been observed in studies of young cattle fed high levels of fresh leucaena leaves for eight months in Thailand, and toxicity in sheep has also been observed. Nevertheless, recent tests on cattle fed high levels of fresh leucaena leaves have indicated that they are able to degrade both mimosine and DHP and may be able to thrive on the diet.
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