\u3cem\u3eTithonia diversifolia\u3c/em\u3e for Ruminant Nutrition

India and Brazil lead the world ranking of livestock enteric methane emissions (FAO 2006). According to FAO (2006), Brazil (9.6 Tg of CH4/year) is the highest emitter of methane from cattle, followed by India (8.6 Tg of CH4/year) and the USA (5.1 Tg of CH4/year). In livestock, methane (CH4) formed from enteric fermentation of carbohydrates is primarily responsible for the emissions in the sector. Regarding livestock methane emission, Delgado et al. (2012) evaluated 20 tree and shrub species using in vitro technique and demonstrated a reducing effect on the amount of methane when Tithonia diversifolia was compared with, for example, Cynodon nlemfuensis grass. Tithonia diversifolia belongs to the division - Sphermatophyta; class - Eudicotiledoneae; sub-class - Metaclamídeas; Order - Campanulate; Family - Asteraceae; Genre - Tithonia, and Species - Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsl.), Gray (Souza 2008). Tithonia diversifolia can be very useful in animal nutrition (Fig. 1) by increasing the protein content of animal diet at low cost (Murgueitio et al. 2010) as well as in the recovery of degraded soils for it grows in areas with low levels of fertility and has high ability to absorb phosphorus, even if it is unavailable to other forage species (Kwabiah et al. 2003). The objective of this study was to assess the nutritional qualities, including quantification of enteric methane generated during in vitro ruminal fermentation, of Tithonia diversifolia as an alternative forage for ruminant nutrition in the tropics