Review of scientific and technical bibliography on the use of Opuntia spp. as forage and its animal validation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56890/jpacd.v17i.59Keywords:
Opuntia spp., cactus, forage, animal nutrition.Abstract
Several studies have shown the remarkable properties of Opuntia spp., a largely distributed
species in the world. It has been used as an edible resource, especially in periods of food
shortage, and also as livestock food in arid lands. This review aimed at identifying current
literature related to Opuntia spp. as forage and its validation through experiences with
domestic and other animals. The literature review was carried out October 3, 2014 using the
Scopus database. From 5,723 documents, 98 of them were selected, all of those which
involved experiences with animals both in housing conditions and in extensive grazing. The
following items were analyzed: publication year, document type, source title, author affiliation
and country, source type, language, animal species used in the experiences and a particular
analysis of the publications in the Journal of the Professional Association for Cactus
Development according to Scopus. It was detected that Scopus omitted some documents in
the review, and there were few contributions regarding experiences that include cactus as
part of animal diets.