Agroecological Zone-Specific Diet Optimization for Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) through Nutritional and In Vitro Fermentation Studies

The water buffalo faces challenges in optimizing nutrition due to varying local feed resources. In response to this challenge, the current study introduces originality by addressing the lack of region-specific feeding strategies for water buffaloes. This is achieved through the formulation of 30 different diets based on locally available resources, offering a tailored approach to enhance nutritional optimization in diverse agroecological contexts. These diets were segmented into three groups of ten, each catering to the maintenance (MD1 to MD10), growth (GD(1) to GD(10)), and lactation/production (PD1 to PD10) needs of buffaloes. Utilizing local feed ingredients, each diet was assessed for its chemical composition, in vitro gas and methane emissions, and dry matter (DM) disappearance using buffalo rumen liquor. The production diets (127 and 32.2 g/kg DM) had more protein and fats than the maintenance diets (82.0 and 21.0 g/kg DM). There was less (p < 0.05) fiber in the production diets compared to the maintenance ones. Different protein components (P-B1, P-B2) were lower (p < 0.05) in the maintenance diets compared to the growth and production ones, but other protein fractions (P-B3, P-c) were higher (p < 0.05) in the maintenance diet. Furthermore, the growth diets had the highest amount of other protein components (P-A), while the maintenance diets had the highest amount of soluble carbohydrates (586 g/kg DM), whereas the carbohydrate fraction (C-B1) was highest (p < 0.05) in the production diets (187 g/kg DM), followed by the growth (129 g/kg DM) and maintenance diets (96.1 g/kg DM). On the contrary, the carbohydrate C-A fraction was (p < 0.05) higher in the maintenance diets (107 g/kg DM) than in the growth (70.4 g/kg DM) and production diets (44.7 g/kg DM). The in vitro gas production over time (12, 24, and 48 h) was roughly the same for all the diets. Interestingly, certain components (ether extract, lignin, NDIN, ADIN, and P-B3 and C-C) of the diets seemed to reduce methane production, while others (OM, NPN, SP, P-A and P-B1,P- tCHO and C-B2) increased it. In simple words, this study reveals that different diets affect gas production during digestion, signifying a significant step towards a promising future for buffalo farming through tailored, region-specific formulations.