Study on mineral, antinutrient and blood parameters of goats fed molasses treated rice husk

A study on the nutritional potential of rice husk treated with or without molasses was carried out using 25 West African Dwarf (WAD) bucks. Five experimental diets were formulated such that; 0, 1, 2 3 and 4% molasses were incorporated in goat diets and were fermented for 5days before being fed to 25 WAD bucks of 5 replicates per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design experiment for 84 days. Results showed that, dietary treatments had significant (P<0.05) influences in all the parameters observed. Diet 5 had the highest crude protein (11.29%CP) and least crude fibre (26.51% CF). However, the dietary ash varied from 11.29% (Diet 5) to 19.84% (Diet 1). The mineral contents (Ca, P, Mg, K) of the diets progressively increased with increased inclusion of molasses and were adequate to support the growth of goats. The highest values were recorded in Diet 5 except for sodium which declined across the treatment. The anti-nutrients contents observed in this study were least in Diet 5 with exception of phenol which had the highest value (23.66%). Dry matter intake (DMI) varied from 466.86g/day (Diet 5) to 452.47g/day (Diet 1). Meanwhile, CPI increased with increased molasses in the diet. Bucks fed Diet 5 had the best mineral retention values and best daily weight gain (68.00g/day) as (6.86) feed gain ratio was the least. Consequently, treatment of rice husk with molasses at 4% inclusion level could improve the general performance of WAD bucks without any adverse effect on their health status

Effects of differently treated Theobroma Cacao pod husk silage and cassava peel meals on nutrient utilization and weight gain of West African dwarf goats

The waste from agricultural produce is increasingly being viewed as a valuable source of alternative feed ingredients for livestock in spite of its usual fibrous nature, poor nutrients quality and low digestibility. This necessitated the need to upgrade the nutrient qualities. Thus, this study was conducted to assess the nutrient utilization and growth performance of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats fed ensilage of Theobroma cacao pod husk (TCPH) treated with non-protein nitrogen sources. Four diets were formulated such that; diet A, B, C and D respectively contained 10 % inclusion of raw TCPH, lye, poultry litter and urea-treated ensiled TCPH replaced with cassava peel meal in a concentrate diets; and fed to twenty-four WAD goats in a completely randomized design for sixtythree days. From the result; nutrient composition, nutrient intake, digestibility, nitrogen balance, weight gain and feed gain ratio were significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the dietary treatment. The highest crude protein (12.57 %), nitrogen balance (6.09 g/day) and least crude fibre (10.43 %), theobromine (1.36 %), and feed gain ratio (11.39) were obtained in goats fed diet D (10 % inclusion of urea-treated cocoa pod husk meal (CPHM) in the diet). Hence, ensiled urea-treated cocoa pod husk meal could enhance growth performance of goats without any adverse effect.Keywords: Urea, Cocoa pod husk, Cassava peel meal, Digestibility, Performance, West African Dwarf goa

Blood metabolites of intensively reared gravid west African dwarf goats fed pulverized biofibre wastes based diets

Under intensive management, the haematological and some biochemical parameters were studied using twelve (12) West African dwarf (WAD) goats weighing 11.90 – 13.05 kg. Does were fed three dietary treatments; pulverized maize-cob/cassava peel (PMC/CsP), pulverized maize-cob/brewers’ grain (PMC/BG) and pulverized maizecob/ cassava peel/brewers’ grain (PMC/CsP/BG) such that four individually housed animals, each serving as a replicate. Animals were synchronized using prostaglandin (PGF2α) at 1 ml/10 kg intramuscularly to bring all the animals to oestrus and were then exposed to a proven buck for mating after 24 hour of administration. Prior to synchronization of the animals, three animals from each treatment were randomly selected and blood collected via the jugular vein into different sterilized specimen bottles with or without anti-coagulant (EDTA) for haematological and serum biochemical evaluations respectively. This was repeated at 20 weeks of gestation. The completely randomized design was adopted. Results showed that at the non-gravid and gravid stages, goats on PMC/BG had significantly higher (p<0.05) packed cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin (Hb), mean cell volume (MCV) and mean cell haemoglobin (MCH), while goats on PMC/CsP/BG had significantly increased (p<0.05) white blood cell (WBC). Total proteins, urea, creatinine and alanine amino transferase (ALT) did not show significant difference (p>0.05) in the non-gravid and gravid goats, while aspartate amino transferase (AST) was significantly higher (p<0.05) in the non-gravid goats fed PMC/BG (90.01 iu/l). It can therefore be concluded that diets used in this study did not show adverse implications on the health of the animals hence its suitability as alternative feed source for gravid goats.Keywords: Pregnant goats, Dietary treatments, Pulverized maize-cob, Cassava peel, Brewers’ grain, Intensive management, Haematology, Serum biochemistr

Comparative studies of nutrients intake and haemato-biochemical indices of bucks fed at three different times of the day

This study objective was to assess the effect of time of feeding on nutrients intake and haemato-biochemical indices of West African dwarf (WAD) bucks. Fifteen bucks with an initial live-weight of 7.50 ± 0.35 kg aged between 8 – 12 months were grouped into three treatments and five replicates for 115 days. The bucks were fed once daily in the morning, noon or evening either at 06:00, 12:00 or 18:00 hour for 90 days respectively under natural light-dark cycles. The experimental diets were Panicum maximum (Guinea grass) and concentrate diets at 50:50 % DM ratio. Serum glucose in evening fed-bucks was significantly higher (p<0.02) than noon and morning-fed buck. Nitrogen retention also increased from dawn to dusk with the morning-fed bucks (64.31 ± 3.79 %) having significantly lowest (p<0.02) value, while evening-fed bucks had the highest (74.73 ± 1.15 %) nitrogen retention. However, time of feeding did not significantly affect (p>0.05) nutrient digestibility, haematological parameters, total protein, lipid profile, and mineral utilization. Feeding animals in the evening or early hours of the morning may be healthy for livestock in a changing climate