Growth performance, blood profile and serum metabolites of West African dwarf growing rams fed guinea grass supplemented with differently processed pigeon pea leaves

A 56-day trial was conducted to investigate the performance and blood profile of West African Dwarf growing rams fed Panicum maximum with differently processed Pigeon pea leaves, twigs, and petioles (PPL). A total of sixteen (16) rams were randomly allotted to four treatments (T1 - 100% P. maximum solely), T2 - 70% P. maximum and 30% fresh PPL), T3 - 70% P. maximum and 30% wilted PPL and T4 - 70% P. maximum and 30% dried PPL) with four animals per treatment in a completely randomized design (CRD). Growth performance and blood analysis parameters such as initial and final weight, feed intake and leftover, packed cell volume, hemoglobin, total protein, albumin, glucose were evaluated. There were significant variation (P<0.05) in all the evaluated parameters. Fresh PPL recorded the highest crude protein (CP) (22.31%), followed by wilted (21.20 %), and the least (5.30 %) was obtained in P. maximum. The phytate contents of fresh, wilted and dried PPL were 1.29%, 1.28% and 1.26% respectively while tannin contents were 1.00, 0.85 and 0.79mg/100gm in fresh, wilted and dried PPL respectively. The feed intake (5.22kg) of each ram fed the T1 diet was higher (P<0.05) than those of T2 (3.50kg), T3 (5.05kg) and T4 (4.61kg). Average, daily and weekly weight gains varied (P<0.05) in the diets in T3>T4 >T2>T1 order, while feed conversion ratio ranged between 3.48 (T3) to 7.35 (T1). The packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin (Hb) ranged from 36.00% in T4 to 38.00% in T1 and 12.50g/dl in T4 to 12.40g/dl in T1 respectively. T3 diet was observed to have the highest total protein (7.00 g/dl), albumin (3.30 g/dl) and globulin (4.40 g/dl) values. From the results of a significant number of evaluated parameters, T3 proved to be the best diet of this study. However, it was concluded that the supplementation of P. maximum with either fresh, wilted or dried PPL would increase the productivity of growing rams. Keywords: WAD rams; Cajanus cajan; Panicum maximum; haematology; serum metabolite

Assessing the genetic diversity of South-western Nigerian Indigenous Pig (Sus scorfa) using mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence

In this study, the maternal genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship of South-western pig population were assessed. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was extracted from air-dried blood spotted on Fast Technology for Analysis (FTA) card. The extracted DNA were amplified with predefined mitochondria (mtDNA) primers. A total of 843 base pair fragment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop region of 30 pigs were analyzed. Seven (7) haplotypes and 64 polymorphic sites were identified, with no insertion or deletion between nucleotide 3 and 835. The mean haplotypic and nucleotide diversity were found to be 0.381±0.058 and 0.315±0.155 respectively. The phylogeny revealed one divergent haplotype clade, suggesting one possible maternal lineage (European domestic pig) in South-west Nigerian pigs. The median joining network formed a star-like pattern, suggesting population expansion from a small number of founding ancestor (IFE1). Genetic variation within and between populations accounted for 63.32% and 36.68% of the total genetic variation respectively. This study concluded that there was relatively high genetic diversity in our indigenous pig population, thus, will probably pave way for preservation and improvement of Nigerian pigs as genetic resources. Keywords: mtDNA, genetic variation, phylogenetic relationshi

Performance and Nutrient Digestibility of West African Dwarf goats fed Panicum maximum supplemented with Gmelina arborea leaves mixture

An experiment was carried out to investigate the performance and nutrient digestibility of twenty (20) growing West African Dwarf bucks, aged 4-6 months weighing between 6.50 9.00kg were fed varying levels of Gmelina arborea leaves and Panicum maximum as a basal diet for 56 days. The results showed that dry matter intake increased (P<0.05) with supplementation of Gmelina arborea leaves, with T (100% G. arborea leaves and 0% P. maximum) having the highest dry matter 5 intake (4.93kg) and T (50% G. arborea leaves and 50% P. maximum) have the least 3 value (4.03kg).Goats fed T (75% P. maximum and 25% G. arborea leaves) has the 2 highest weight gain (28.57g/day) followed by T (16.79g/day) while T (100% P. 3 1 maximum and 0% G. arborea leaves) has the least value of 5.54g/day. The nutrient digestibility trial showed that T diethas the highest dry matter digestibility (88.06%) 3 while T diet had the lowest value of 87.68, with no significant difference (p<0.05). 2 The highest (CP) digestibility (9.58%) and (CF) digestibility (22.53%) was recorded in T diet. Based on the result of this study, it can be concluded that Gmelina arborea 5 appeared to have the potential as protein feed supplements as well as serves as a good feed resource for modern intensive ruminant animal production at inclusion level of 75%Panicum maximum and 25% Gmelina arborea leaves for a better feed utilization, and at 100% Gmelina arborea leaves and 0% Panicum maximum to achieve best dry matter intake.Key words: WAD goats; legume; tropical grass; digestibilit