Animal Protein intake and the Effect of age on the level of Protein Consumption in five Local Government Areas of Niger State

A household survey was conducted using questionnaires to assess Animal Protein Intake within different families. The results indicated that items such as ‘bush meat', beef, fresh fish, eggs, goat meat, cow milk, poultry meat and mutton were consumed by at least 90% of family members. Rabbit meat, hides and skin and meat offal were consumed by 70.49, 64.87, and 58.78% of family members respectively. Pork was hardly consumed by any member of a family because of the predominant Muslim population in the study area. Fathers usually had greater proportions of most of the items during meal. Mothers, children and sick members of the households were not usually given any consideration based on their physiological status and needs. Some of the items such as eggs, milk and poultry meat were not consumed in reasonable quantities due to poor economic situation of the family. The results suggested that except for the fathers, other groups such as mothers and children were consuming animal protein below the quantity required by them. JARD Vol. 2 2003: pp. 93-9

Performance of Yankassa sheep and Savanna brown goats under free grazing and tethering systems of management

Sixteen Yankasa sheep and 16 Savanna Brown goats aged between 2-3 years were used to assess the body weight and body condition of sheep and goats under free range and tethering systems of management over a period 92 days. Four experimental groups were constituted by randomly assigning 8 animals from each species to either free range or tethered system of management. Free range goats recorded the highest live weight gain of 6.15 kg followed by free range sheep with a value of 4.32 kg. Tethered goats and tethered sheep recorded relatively lower values of 1.66 and 0.90 kg respectively. The body condition gains were also higher in free range animals compared with the tethered ones with values being 0.70 free range sheep, 0.49 for free range goats, 0.03/or tethered sheep and -0.29 for tethered goats. It was concluded that for tethered animals to perform well, their diet must be adequately supplemented with good quality fodder and/or concentrate and should also be adequately protected from adverse weather conditions. Key words:  Sheep, Goats, Body weight, Body Condition, Free range, Tetherin

Survey of Prices of Beef, Mutton, Goat Meat and Chicken in Niger State Between 1995 and 2000

Target Audience: Livestock farmers, Economists, Butchers, Meat consumers Data collected on the market prices of beef, mutton, goat meat and chicken from urban and rural markets over a period of six years (1995-2000) in three agro-ecological zones (Zones 1, 2 and 3) of Niger state were used for the study Zone 2 which was the most cosmopolitan of the three zones recorded significantly higher (P < 0.05) prices as well as higher annual price increases in both urban and rural markets. Differences between urban and rural market prices were also significantly different (P < 0.05) in all the zones and for all the items. Prices increased steadily between 1995 and 1999 and sharply between 1999 and 2000 for all the items and in all the locations. Annual price increases of 19.77 to 27.23%, 16.62 to 20.12%, 18.44 to 24.97% and 13.71 and 17.82% were recorded for beef, mutton, goat meat and chicken respectively. Price increase were observed between October and March with a peak period in December/January. The lowest prices were recorded between the months of June and September. Higher prices coincided with end of year/new year festivities. Increased in salaries and wages in the year 2000 brought about a sharp increase in the prices of all the items. Key Words: Beef, Mutton, Goat meat, chicken, urban market, rural market Trop. J. Anim. Sci. Vol.6(1) 2003: 19-2

Effect of Inclusion of Cotton Seed Cake on the laying Performance and Egg Quality of Layers

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Meat Yield and Meat Composition of Broiler Chickens fed Sodium Chloride Treated Rice Bran as a Replacment for Corn Offal

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Performance traits, nutrient utilization and cost implication of feeding different thermally treated soyabeans to broiler chickens

The effects of different thermally processed soyabeans on performance traits, nutrient utilization and cost implication of feeding different thermally treated soyabeans to broiler chickens were compared in this study using 240 day-old Anak broilers that were randomly divided into four (4) experimental groups of three replicates each. Dietary treatments were: T1-Extrusion (control), T2-Cooking, T3-Toasting and T4-Roasting groups and were fed isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets. Variations were observed among treatments in the performance evaluation traits especially in feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and performance indices. Dry matter and crude fibre values showed significant (P&lt;0.05) differences at the starter phase only while no significant (P&gt;0.05) difference was observed in the digestibility of other nutrients at both the starter and the finisher phases. Total income was highest in the toasting group while roasting gave the least income. Gross profit of 16,079.50, 20,865.30, 22,660.40 and 12,715.20 were respectively recorded for extrusion, cooking, toasting and roasting while the benefit/cost ratio were, 0.06, 0.62, 0.66 and 0.70 representing toasting, cooking, roasting and extrusion respectively. It was observed that cooking gave averagely better performance traits, nutrient utilization and economic return than in other treatment groups.Keywords: Broilers, Cost implication, Nutrient utilization, Performance traits, Thermal processin

Body weight measurements and correlation relationship in Savanna Brown goats as influence by age at castration, sex and type of birth

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of age at castration, type of birth and sex on body weight, body linear measurements and correlation of semi-intensively managed Savanna Brown goats. Forty eight (48) Savanna Brown goats (kids) aged between 2 - 8 weeks were used. The experiment lasted for 12 weeks. The goats were randomly allocated to 12 treatments (T1- T12) comprising of 2 replicates with 2 goats per replicate. T1 &ndash;T8 were goats castrated at ages 2,4, 6,and 8 weeks respectively while T9, T10, T11 and T12 comprised of 8 entire males and 8 females respectively. Open castration method was carried out on the castrates. The parameters measured were body weight and body linear measurements such as body length, chest length, height at withers, facial length, fore leg length and hind leg length. The result showed that twins castrated at 2 weeks obtained significantly higher values over twins castrated at 8 weeks in body length (53.50 and 43.00) and fore leg length (41.65 and 33.75) . Fore leg and hind leg lengths were observed to be the most correlated to body weight and this was observed in twins castrated at 2 weeks. Therefore, the two parameters can be recommended as good estimate for predicting live weight in Savanna Brown goats kids up to 12 weeks of age.Key words: Influence, age at Castration, type of birth, growth performance, Goat

Body weight measurements and correlation relationship in Savanna brown goats as influence by age at castration, sex and type of birth

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of age at castration, type of birth and sex on body weight, body linear measurements and correlation between body weight and body length, chest length, height-at-withers, facial length and fore and hind leg lengths of semi-intensively managed Savanna Brown goats. Forty eight (48) Savanna Brown goats (kids) aged between 2 - 8 weeks were used. The experiment lasted for 12 weeks. The goats were randomly allocated to 12 treatments (T1- T12) comprising of 2 replicates with 2 goats per replicate. T1 &#8211;T8 were single and twin goats castrated at ages 2,4, 6,and 8 weeks respectively while T9, T10, T11 and T12 comprised of 8 entire males and 8 females respectively. Open castration method was carried out on the castrates. The parameters measured were body weight and body linear measurements such as body length, chest length, height at withers, facial length, fore leg length and hind leg length. The result showed that twins castrated at 2 weeks obtained significantly higher values over twins castrated at 8 weeks in body length (53.50 and 43.00) and fore leg length (41.65 and 33.75) . Fore leg and hind leg lengths were observed to be the most correlated to body weight and this was observed in twins castrated at 2 weeks. Therefore, the two parameters can be recommended as good estimate for predicting live weight in Savanna Brown goats kids up to 12 weeks of age

Carcass proportion, blood metabolites and haematological parameters of broilers fed optimal diet, having been previously on excess and sub-optimal energy protein diets.

One hundred and eighty, six weeks old broiler birds which were obtained from a previous experiment (starter phase) were used for this study. The birds were retained in their former groupings (5 groups). Each of the groups comprised of 3 replicates made up of 12 birds per replicate. The birds were managed on deep litter and fed a standard containing the optimal diet (20% CP and 2,800 Kcal/kg ME). Both the feed and water were served ad libitum. The nutrient levels in the feed were confirmed by laboratory analysis using standard methods as stipulated by the Association of Analytical Chemists. At the 9th week, blood was collected for analysis while birds cut up parts were measured. The result from this experiment showed that most of the cut up parts measured were not significantly different (P&gt;0.05) across the treatment diets ,except for neck weight, % LW and chest weight % LW. Furthermore, except for glucose level and serum total protein, other blood metabolites and haematological parameters across the treatments were not significantly different. In conclusion, birds subjected to treatments in Tables 3 and 4 were found to have their blood metabolites and haematological parameters to be normal while their carcass proportions were adequate.Key Words: Carcass proportion, Blood parameters, Energy protein diets, Broilers

Effects of diets containing alkali-treated Soybeans on performance traits, nutrient digestibility and cost benefits of broiler chickens

The effects of diets containing different alkali-treated soybeans on performance traits, nutrient digestibility and cost implication of broiler chickens was evaluated using 240 day-old Anak broiler chickens that were randomly divided into four (4) experimental groups of three replicates each. The soybeans were treated in alkali as follows: soaked in water as T1 (control), sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) as T2, Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) as (T3) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as T4. The alkali-treated soybeans were incorporated into the diets at both starter and finisher phases using a completely randomized design. There were significant (P&lt;0.05) variations in performance parameters, nutrient retention and bio-economic implication indices measured. The use of potassium carbonate (1% K2CO3) and sodium carbonate (1% Na2CO3) in the processing of soybean recorded greater improvement in the performance traits, nutrient retention and economic returns. These factors accounted for the overall best performance recorded in 1% K2CO3 - treated soybeans which was closely followed by 1% Na2CO3 treated soybean base diets.Keywords: Alkaline treatment, Broilers, Economics, Nutrient retention, Performance trait