Nutritional Evaluation of Icacinia manni (Earth Ball) Processed in Saline as a Source of Dietary Energy in Broiler Production

The effect of Icacinia manni meal fermented in saline on the performance, carcass and internal organ characteristics were determined in a 65-day feeding trial. Proximate composition of the meal showed that Icacinia manni is high in crude protein, crude fibre and Ash. Three (3) experimental diets were formulated both at the starter phase and finisher phase. Diet 1 (control) contained maize as source of energy; diet 2 and 3 contained Icacinia manni fermented in saline (IMS) at 10% and 20% levels; partly replacing maize in the diet. One hundred and eighty day old broiler chicks were used for the experiment. The birds were divided into three groups of 60 birds each and each group assigned to one of the experimental diets using completely randomized design (CRD). Each group was further subdivided in 4 replicate of 15 birds. The values of feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio were not significantly (p  different. The dressed weight, live weight, gizzard, liver and abdominal fat followed the same trend. Significant (p  difference was recorded in the heart and kidney weight. The 20% IMS recorded a higher heart and kidney weight than the control. It was concluded that Icacinia manni meal can be included in broiler diet up to 20% if fermented in saline

Influence of genotype on body weight and morphometric traits of rabbits raised in the tropics

Two breeds of rabbits New Zealand white (NZW) and Chinchilla (CHA) were crossbred to produce both pure and crossbred genotypes. Four  genotypes NZW x NZW, CHA x CHA, NZW x CHA and CHA x NZW were generated to obtain one hundred and twenty (126) kittens, examined for the influence of genotypes on body weight and morphometric traits performance. Body weight an d morphometric traits were measured early in the  morning at weeks 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. The traits measured were body weight (BWT), body width (BWD), Neck length (NL), leg length (LL), ear length (EL), body length (BL), heart girth (HG), shoulder to tail (ST) and thigh length (TL). The data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance and  phenotypic correlations between body weight and morphometric traits as well as among morphometric traits were estimated. The results indicated that genotype had significant (p<0.05) influence on body weight and other morphometric traits measured with cross bred NZW x CHA genotype showing superiority in body weight and other morphometric traits than other genotype studied at all ages. Positive high (p<0.001) and significant (p<0.05) correlations were established among the morphometric traits measured, and between BWT with other morphometric traits except the relationship with BWD and ST at week 10. It was concluded that NZW x CHA had a significant higher performance in body weight and morphometric traits in the study area and thus should be recommended to farmers to meet protein requirement of individuals in the area of this study. Keywords: Rabbit, Genotype, Body weight, Morphometric trait

Haemoglobin and potassium polymorphism in agro-pastoral goats herd from Sudan savannah zone of Nigeria

This study was conducted to determine the haemoglobin (Hb) and potassium (K) polymorphism and its distribution in agro-pastoral goats herd of Sudan savanna zone of Nigeria. Five (5l) ml of blood samples were collected each from 250 smallholder agropastoral goats and used for this study. The blood samples were collected by jugular venipuncture, using needle and syringe into test tube containing ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) as anticoagulant and samples were properly labeled. The electrophoretic analysis showed three haemoglobin genotypes HbAA, HbAB and HbBB. These genotypes were produced by 2 co-dominant alleles HbA and HbB. The genotypic frequencies were 0.47, 0.43 and 0.099 for HbAA, HbAB and HbBB, respectively. The preponderance of HbA alleles (0.683) was twice its co-dominant allele HbB (0.316). The Chi-square test revealed that the population of goats in the study area was in Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium. The gene frequencies of potassium polymorphism were 0.844 and 0.156 for high (HK) and low potassium (LK) types, respectively. The genotypic frequencies were 0.91 for HK and 0.01 for LK in the overall population. The observedfrequencies of potassium types were also in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in both locations and in the overall population. thus suggesting that random mating occurred for the system under study and artificial selection has not much been practiced by the smallholder agro-pastoral goats farmers in the study area.Keywords: Haemoglobin, Potassium, Polymorphism, Agro-pastoral, Goats, Genotypes, Dominant allele, Hardy-Weinberg equilibriu