The leaves and twigs of most Ziziphus species, including Ziziphus mauritiana, can be used as nutritious fodder for livestock.
Palatability
Leaves of Indian jujube are readily eaten by camels, sheep, goats and cattle (Azam-Ali et al., 2006; Tewatia et al., 2002). In arid areas of Pakistan, Indian jujube is among the preferred plant species by all classes of ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats, camels), and also donkeys, particularly during winter and early spring (Khan et al., 2012a). In the Sahelian rangeland of Cameroon, dietary preferences were higher for leaves of Ziziphus species, while pods and blossoms of other species were generally preferred (Ngwa et al., 2000). Preference indices for Indian jujube fruits increase after the rainy season when fruit production is higher. Recent assessment of the use of browse species by cattle and small ruminants in Burkina Faso showed that Indian jujube, together with Balanites aegyptiaca and Acacia spp. were among the preferred species by sheep and goats (Zampaligré et al., 2013). This was not the case for ruminants (Hansen et al., 2008).
Cattle
In Burkina Faso, a 4-year study showed that tree fodder was a very minor part of the diet selected by herbivores, even when there was little grass available in the dry season. This was especially true for cattle (Piot et al., 1980). This was later confirmed by an assessment of the feeding behaviour of free-ranging cattle, who did not ingest more than 25% of browse forage, among which Indian jujube represented less than 5% (Hansen et al., 2008).
Sheep
The use of Indian jujube leaves was assessed in sheep diets as a replacement for cottonseed cake. It was shown that only relatively low levels of about 10 to 20% (DM basis) of Indian jujube could be included in the diets of growing sheep without impairing animal performance (Abdu et al., 2012). In Nigeria, increasing the access time to Indian jujube (from 60 to 120 minutes per day), for Oudah rams on natural pasture, increased both total DM intake (33.2 to 37.9 g/kg LW) and digestible OM intake (36.8 to 40.9 g/kg LW0.75), but slightly decreased digestibility (53 to 52%). However, Indian jujube appeared to have potential to increase sheep production in low-input crop/livestock systems (Sangaré et al., 2003), although sheep had a limited capacity to benefit from Indian jujube leaves as a protein supplement. Nitrogen digestibility was significantly lower with Indian jujube, but combining the leaves with urea (10 g/d) markedly increased N retention and is suggested as a cheap and practical way of improving the feed quality for sheep (Habib et al., 2008).
Goats
Though Indian jujube is readily eaten by goats, its forage generally has a lower nutritive value than other tree forages (Barbind et al., 2006). On the contrary, comparisons with other forages such as water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) and berseem hay was favourable to Indian jujube leaves (Kongmanila et al., 2009; Tewatia et al., 2003). When offered with water spinach ad libitum, Indian jujube increased DM intake, apparent digestibility and N retention compared to water spinach alone (Kongmanila et al., 2009). It has been included in low quality diets for goats at up to 50% of the DM (Myint et al., 2010; Khan et al., 2009). In grazing dairy goats, Indian jujube forage used as a potential replacer for cottonseed cake in a low quality diet for 10 weeks had a positive effect on milk yield. This could be explained by its low rumen degradability due to the presence of tannins and its subsequent relatively high bypass protein content (Khan et al., 2009). The inclusion of Indian jujube forage at 50% of the DM in a sesame oil meal based diet did not decrease overall intake, but all digestibility parameters were significantly reduced and N retention was lower than with leucaena supplementation (Myint et al., 2010). In Laos, Indian jujube offered ad libitum to male goats resulted in lower feed intake, nutrient intake and apparent digestibility compared to erythrina, jackfruit and kapok (Kongmanila et al., 2008).
