Alimentacion De Avestruces

773

The Nutrition Requirements and Foraging Behaviour of Ostriches
Z. H. Miao*, P. C. Glatz and Y. J. Ru SARDI-Livestock Systems, Roseworthy Campus, University of Adelaide. SA, 5371, Australia ABSTRACT : Ostrich farming is a developing industry in most countries in the world, with farm profitability being largely dependent
on the quality of the products, especially skins and meat. To producequality products, it is essential to ensure that nutrient supply matches the nutrient requirements of ostriches during their growth. To achieve this, information on feed utilisation efficiency and nutrient requirements of ostriches at different maturity stages is required. In South Africa, a number of experiments were carried out to assess the nutritive value of feed and to define the nutrientrequirement of ostriches. These data were derived from limited number of birds and the direct application of the results to ostrich farming in Australia and other countries is questionable due to the difference in environment and feed resources. Initially ostrich farmers used data from poultry as a guideline for feed formulation, but in recent years more data has become available for ostriches.Ostriches have a better feed utilisation efficiency and a larger capacity of using high fibre feeds such as pastures than poultry. This review revealed that there are a number of areas there further nutritional research and development is required to ensure the ostriches are provided suitable diets to maximise farm profitability. These include the assessment of the nutritive value of feed ingredientsfor ostrich chicks and adult birds, the determination of nutrient requirements of ostriches under different farming systems, the development of ostrich diet for producing specific product, and grazing management strategies of ostriches in a crop-pasture rotation system. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2003. Vol 16, No. 5 : 773-788) Key Words : Fibrous Feeds, Nutrient Requirement, Feed Digestibility,Digestive System, Ostrich Farming, Grazing

INTRODUCTION Ostrich farming commenced in South Africa in 1863. In ancient times, feathers were used to decorate the headdresses of Egyptian queens as well as Greek and Roman generals. The eggs were used as water-containers by bushmen and to decorate the crosses of Coptic churches in Ethiopia (Earle, 1994). Two different methods are used in theliterature to classify the ostrich species. Smit (1963) recognised four species of ostrich; 1) the North African (Struthio camelus Linnaeus), 2) East African (Struthio massaicus Neumann), 3) Somali (Struthio molybdophanes Reichenow), and 4) South African (Struthio australis Gurney). Other researchers, however, classified all African ostriches as one species, the Struthio camelus with four varieties(Goodman et al., 1983; Swart, 1988; Stewart, 1989a). Together with the above four varieties a cross between South African and North African ostriches, Struthio camelus domesticus, is recognised as a fifth variety, and is farmed extensively in South Africa (Smit, 1963; Brown et al., 1982; Swart, 1988). In the wild, ostriches forage on patches of green vegetation in arid environments (Williams et al.,1993) and feed on a wide range of plant, fruit and vegetable species (Smit, 1963; Robinson and Seely, 1975; Kok, 1980; Keffen, 1984; Williams et al., 1993; Earle, 1994). Ostriches are able
* Reprint request to: Z. H. Miao. Livestock Systems South Australian Research and Development Institute Roseworthy Campus, Roseworthy South Australia 5371, Australia. Tel: +61-08-8303-7664, Fax: +61-08-8303-7977,E-mail: miao.zhihong@saugov.sa.gov.au Received August 2, 2002; Accepted January 14, 2003

to survive in areas with high temperatures and poor vegetation (Shanawany, 1996). The long legs and great speed of the ostrich enable them to cover vast distances in search of water and food (Sauer and Sauer, 1966; Berry and Louw, 1982). For example, Namibian desert ostriches can travel a minimum of 7.7 to...