Agroecological practices to support tropical livestock farming systems: a Caribbean and Latin American perspective.

With global climate changes currently occurring, and particularly given the severe energy and food shortages occurring throughout tropical regions, agroecological (AE) systems are drawing renewed attention as an efficient alternative to intensive models of production, particularly unsuitable in regions of the world such as the Caribbean or Latin America. There is a pressing need to focus on livestock farming systems (LFS) and characterize their potential contributions to global sustainability. A multidisciplinary approach is needed to address these multiple and complex problems.

Influence of S. babylonica extract on feed intake, growth performance and diet in vitro gas production profile in young lambs.

An experiment was completed to determine the effect of Salix babylonica (SB) extract supplementation to the diet of growing lambs. Eighteen Katahdin × Pelibuey male lambs (14 ± 2 kg live body weight) were divided randomly in individual cages into three groups and fed three diets varying in SB: a control group was fed on total mixed ration (TMR) without SB (SB0), an SB25 group was fed on TMR plus SB extract at 25 mL/lamb/day, and an SB50 group was fed on TMR plus SB extract at 50 mL/lamb/day on dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain (ADG), feed efficiency, and in vitro gas production (GP) in lambs fed on TMR. In vitro GP of the TMR fed to lambs was recorded at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h of incubation with 0, 0.