Review of scientific and technical bibliography on the use of Opuntia spp. as forage and its animal validation

Abstract

Several studies have shown the remarkable properties of Opuntia spp., a largely distributedspecies in the world. It has been used as an edible resource, especially in periods of foodshortage, and also as livestock food in arid lands. This review aimed at identifying currentliterature related to Opuntia spp. as forage and its validation through experiences withdomestic and other animals. The literature review was carried out October 3, 2014 using theScopus database. From 5,723 documents, 98 of them were selected, all of those whichinvolved experiences with animals both in housing conditions and in extensive grazing. Thefollowing items were analyzed: publication year, document type, source title, author affiliationand country, source type, language, animal species used in the experiences and a particularanalysis of the publications in the Journal of the Professional Association for CactusDevelopment according to Scopus. It was detected that Scopus omitted some documents inthe review, and there were few contributions regarding experiences that include cactus aspart of animal diets.