The Dynamics of Dietary Supplementation of Direct Fed Microbial and Antibiotic on the Haemato-Biochemical Values of Broiler Chickens

With the restriction in the use of antibiotics in animal nutrition as growth promoters there has been increased interest in the discovery and use of natural alternatives. This experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of Direct fed microbial (RE3) and antibiotics (FYSAL®-DRY SP) on haematological and serum biochemistry of broiler chickens. Two hundred and forty one-day-old unsexed Marshal strain of broiler chicks were used for the experiment. The birds were randomly divided into 3 groups of 4 replicates of 20 birds each to make a total of 80 birds per treatment in a complete randomized design experiment. Three diets were formulated as follows Diet 1 was the control without probiotic or antibiotic, Diet 2- control diet  plus Direct fed microbial (1.5ml/kg of feed) and  Diet 3- control diet plus antibiotics (2g/kg of feed). The experiment lasted for 8 weeks. Blood samples were collected from the birds for haematological studies and serum biochemistry. Results showed that haematological parameters were not adversely (p>0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. The values obtained for serum total protein, globulin and albumin were not significantly (p>0.05) affected among the dietary treatments. However, blood cholesterol level was significantly lowered in diets containing direct fed microbial and antibiotics.  It was concluded that addition of probiotic could be more beneficial in reducing cholesterol in broiler chickens. Keywords: Antibiotic, Broilers, Cholesterol, Direct fed Microbial, Haematological parameter

Effect of replacing maize with a mixture of rumen content and blood meal on the performances of growing rabbits: initial study with mash feed

[EN] A total of 24 cross-bred male weaner rabbits, between 6-8 weeks of age, were fed diets which included a mixture (50:50) of rumen content (RC) and blood meal (BM), containing a crude protein content of 37.6% and crude fibre content of 9.0%, at 0 (control), 10 and 20% levels. The mixture replaced maize and maize bran in the control diet. The 3 experimental diets were restricted to 100 g daily in mash form for a period of 8 weeks to the individually housed rabbits. The inclusion of RC+BM mixture in diet 1 at 10% (RB10) significantly (P<0.05) worsed final live weight, daily feed intake, daily weight gain and feed: gain ratio while its inclusion at 20% (RB20) only reduced daily feed intake. Weight gain in controls, RB 10 and RB 20 was 483, 273 and 422 g, respectively. Kidney, spleen and lungs, but not the liver, were observed to be significantly (P<0.05) affected by dietary treatment. Carcass yield followed a similar response pattern as final live weight, since it was a product of the final live weight. However, left thigh muscle components were not affected by the dietary treatments. This preliminary study indicated that more research is necessary to reduce the negative effect on feed intake when RC-BM mixture (50:50 ratio) is included in growing rabbit diets, which was probably due to the presentation form applied.Togun, V.; Farinu, G.; Ojebiyi, O.; Awotunde, A. (2009). Effect of replacing maize with a mixture of rumen content and blood meal on the performances of growing rabbits: initial study with mash feed. World Rabbit Science. 17(1):21-26. doi:10.4995/wrs.2009.666212617

Synergetic Effect of Cassava Sievate/Soybean Milk Residue Mixtures as Replacement for Maize in Growing Rabbits Diet

The grain replacement value of  cassava sievate/soybean milk residue (CS/SBMR) mixtures was investigated in a  56 days feeding trial using thirty two (32) cross bred rabbits of mixed sexes with average weight range of 546.38 ± 30.76 and 560.88 ± 29.020g. Four diets were formulated as follows: Diet 1 without inclusion of CS/SBMR served as the control. Diets 2, 3, and 4 had  CS/SBMR mixtures replacing  corn of the control diet at 25, 50 and 75 % respectively. The animals were randomly distributed to the four dietary treatments. Each treatment had eight animals with each rabbit serving as a replicate in a completely randomized design experiment. Results showed that there were significant differences (P&lt;0.05) in the final live weight, daily weight gain, feed to gain ratio, daily feed intake, feed cost per kg (?) . Diets with CS/SBMR mixtures had similar (P&lt;0.05) average daily weight gains of 12.85 ± 1.81, 11.55 ± 0.39 and 11.26 ± 1.18 for T2, T3 and T4 respectively which are higher (P&lt;0.05) than 9.96 ± 1.21 of the control. The digestibility of nutrients shows that the dry matter, crude protein as well as ether extract digestibilities across the treatments were similar (P&gt;0.05) for rabbits in treatments 1, 2 and 3 but higher (P&lt;0.05) than rabbits in treatment 4. Rabbits fed 50 % inclusion level of CS/SBMR had the lowest (P&lt;0.05) cost per kg weight gain (N152.77/kg weight gain). The heamatological parameters measured were not affected by dietary treatments. Relative kidney and liver weights were not affected (p&gt;0.05) but the dressed carcass, dressing percentage, heart, lungs and spleen were affected (p&lt;0.05) by dietary treatments.  Inclusion of cassava sievate/soybean milk residue mixtures in the diets of growing rabbits enhanced growth, reduced cost of production and is thus recommended for use by resource poor farmers to partially replace the expensive conventional maize. Keywords: cassava sievate, soybean milk residue, growing rabbits, performanc

Intestinal histology of broiler chickens fed direct fed microbial (RE3) and antibiotics

This study was conducted to compare the effects of using direct fed microbial (RE3) and antibiotics on the gut morphology. Two hundred and forty unsexed, one-day old Marshal strain broiler chicks were used for the experiment. The birds were randomly allotted into three dietary treatments with each treatment replicated four times at 20 birds per replicate making a total of 80 birds per treatment. The experimental design was completely randomized design. The villous height (9.303E2), the crypt depth (1.5053E2) and the muscular thickness (2.2311E2) of the RE3 treated birds were higher (P&lt;0.05) when compared with birds fed with control diet (T1) 8.619E2, 1.3790E2 and 1.9645E2 and the control + antibiotics (T3) 7.0677E2, 1.3331E2 and 1.9027E2 respectively. The observations revealed that birds put on treatment 2 (RE3 probiotics) had better presentation and preservation of the intestinal villi, glands and intestinal wall integrity. It was concluded that supplementation of broilers diets with the direct fed microbial (RE3) will lead to maintenance of intestinal health and better utilization of nutrients to enable full expression of genetic potential. Keywords: direct fed microbial, broilers, villous height, crypt depth, muscular thicknes

Performance characteristics of growing rabbits fed diet based on a non-conventional ingredient

A feeding trial using twenty four cross bred 8-9 weeks old rabbits was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding cerelac waste - CW (a by-product of the infant food industry considered as waste) on the performance and organ characteristics of growing rabbits. Three experimental diets were formulated with diet 1 serving as the control. Diets 2 and 3 had CW included at 25 and 50% respectively. The rabbits were randomly allocated into 3 treatment (after weight balancing) groups of 8 rabbits each and the groups were assigned randomly to the three diets with each rabbit serving as a replicate in a Complete Randomized Design experiment. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks. Dietary treatments had no significant (p&gt;0.05) effect on the average daily gain, which was 11.3, 11.6, 11.3 g/d for the control, 25 and 50% inclusion respectively. In addition, the feed conversion rate was not significantly (p&gt;0.05) affected by the inclusion of CW, which were 6.64, 6.24 and 6.45 for the control, 25 and 50% inclusion of CW respectively. However, the feed cost per kg as well as feed cost per kg weight gain decreased linearly with increasing level of CW. The relative organ weights showed no significant differences (p&gt;0.05) across the dietary treatments. In conclusion, 50% CW can be included in growing rabbit diets without negative effect on performance.Keywords: Cerelac waste, daily weight gain, growing rabbit, haematological parameters, relative organ weigh

Preliminary study on the performance of rabbit bucks fed sole forage, concentrate and their mixtures

Thirty five rabbit bucks of mixed breed of 7 weeks of age, weighing 519±5.00 g were used to investigate the potentials of two common weeds, Aspilia africana (Aa) and Tridax procumbens (Tp) as forages. The rabbits were divided into 5 groups in a completely randomised design. Group 1 was placed on sole concentrate feeding; concentrate feeding was skipped for 1, 2 and 3 days in groups 2, 3, and 4 respectively with ad libitum mixed-forage Aa and Tp feeding. Group 5 was fed on a mixed-forage diet of 250 g Aa: 250g Tp. The daily pellet intake decreased linearly as the number of days that concentrate feeding was skipped increased. Rabbits in groups 2 and 4 reached puberty at 13.8 and 14.0 weeks respectively, which were longer (p<0.05) than 12.8 and 13.1 weeks for groups 1 and 3. None of the rabbits on the sole forage diet reached puberty at the end of the experiment. Supplementation of the test forages with 23-43 g of a balanced concentrate feed per rabbit per day could give satisfactorily performance.Treinta y cinco conejos de raza mezclada de 7 semanas de edad con peso de 519±5,00 g, fueron empleados para investigar el potencial de dos adventicias comunes, Aspilia africana (Aa) y Tridax procumbens (Tp) como forraje para cone- jos. Los conejos fueron divididos en 5 grupos con un diseño completamente al azar. El grupo 1 consumió solamente concentrado. El concentra- do fue omitido por 1, 2 o 3 días en los grupos 2, 3 y 4 respectivamente con alimentación ad libitum de una mezcla de Aa y Tp. El grupo 5 fue alimen- tado con mezcla de 250 g de Aa y 250 g deTp. La ingestión diaria de gránulos, disminuyó linealmente al aumentar el número de días en que el pienso era omitido. Los grupos 2 y 4 alcanzaron la pubertad a 13,8 y 14,0 semanas respectivamente, tiempo que fue mayor (p<0,05) que las 12,8 y 13,1 semanas que tardaron los grupos 1 y 3. Ningún conejo de la dieta exclusiva de forraje alcanzó la pubertad al final del experimento. La suplementación del forraje con 23-43 g por conejo y día de un concentrado balanceado podría permitir un rendi- miento satisfactorio

Stylosanthes hamata spacing effect on utilization of Andropogon tectorum by west African dwarf sheep

Twenty four West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep of an average initial weight range of 10.14- 10.50 kg were used to investigate the feed intake and digestibility of Andropogon tectorum interplanted with Stylosanthes hamata at varying inter-row spacing of 0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5m. The grasses cut from experimental plots were used as experimental diets 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Animals were randomly distributed (after acclimatization) to the four treatments using a completely randomized experimental design (CRD). The initial weight, final weight and average feed intake were monitored while average daily feed intake, average daily weight gain, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance were determined. All the data obtained were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as packaged by SAS (2000). The nutrient intake was significantly (

Influence of Age and sex on body weight and some body linear measurements of Extensively Reared wad Goats in Derived Savannah zone of Nigeria

Body weight and body linear measurement (Diagonal body length, Height-at-withers, sac pelvic width, Heart girth) of 259 West African Dwarf (WAD) goats (both sexes) in three age groups (Kid, yearling and Adult) were measured. The least square means for body weight were 6.40, 10.5 and 18.9 kg for kid, yearling and Adult respectively. Means of other body linear measurements also vary within each age group. The variables measured vary positively with age of the animals and the correlations of body weight with diagonal body length, Height at whither, sac-pelvic width and heart girth were high, positive and significant (

Growth and nutrient utilization of broiler chickens fed steam treated cattle rumen epithelia scrapping meal in place of fish meal

feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of broiler chickens fed varied levels of steam-treated&nbsp; Cattle Rumen Epithelia Scrapings (CRESM) in replacement for fish meal at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% level. Two hundred and four (240), one-day old Abor Acre strain of broiler chickens used for the study were randomly divided into 5 treatments of four (4) replicates each. There were 12 birds per&nbsp; replicate to make a total of 48 birds per treatment in a completely randomized design. Data were collected on the feed intake, weight gain, feed to gain ratio, feed cost per kilogram weight gain at the starter and finisher phases while digestibility trial was conducted at the finisher phase. The results indicated that feed intake (44.15, 48.20, 48.87, 47.18 and 49.30g) and weight gain (20.73, 24.13, 24.63, 23.69 and 23.34g) for 0, 25, 50, 75 and&nbsp; 100% CRESM, respectively were higher (P&lt;0.05) and feed: gain ratio lower in birds that received diets containing CRESM at starter phase. Feed cost and feed cost per kg weight gain decreased with increased level of CRESM at this phase. At the finisher phase, feed cost per kilogram weight gain(? 260:01) of treatment five (100% inclusion of CRESM) was the lowest (p&lt;0.05) compared with other inclusion while the control was the highest. It was concluded that 100% fishmeal could be replaced with steam-treated CRESM in broiler diets, thus ultimately reducing the production cost and increasing the profit accruable to farmers. Keywords: Growth performance, Nutrient digestibility, CRESM, fish mea