The importance of Yeheb (Cordeauxia edulis) for Somali livestock production and its effects on body tissues when fed to Swedish domestic goats

Sammanfattning: This master thesis was conducted in order to investigate the effects of the browsing species Yeheb on animal tissues in Swedish landrace goats and to make a literature review in order to increase the knowledge of the importance of this plant for livestock production in Somalia. The evergreen Yeheb bush is a very important feeding source for grazing and browsing animals in Somalia during the dry period. Yeheb contains cordeauxiaquinone that stains the bones of the animals red/pink, which has been an increasing problem when exporting meat to foreign countries. In an experiment, two goats were fed dry and fresh leaves from the Yeheb bush for one and two months, respectively. The goats did not feed the intended amount of dry leaves, since the supply and palatability was not as high as estimated. Results show that cordeauxiaquinone and/or its derivatives was found in the rumen liquid and the level of cordeauxiaquinone accumulated in the goat plasma by time; an increased absorption was measured with a spectrophotometer in the interval of 440-580 nm. The skeleton did not turn reddish, possibly due to the relatively short exposure time or the relatively low intake compared to that of goats in Somalia. For future studies, both qualitative and quantitative methods have to be established for cordeauxiaquinone analyses in body tissues and in plants.