The effect of inclusion level on nutrient intake, digestibility, nitrogen metabolism and haematological parameters of West African Dwarf (WAD) goat fed Cajanus cajan as supplement to cassava peels was investigated in a completely randomized design experiment using twenty-four WAD goats with average initial weight of 10.75±0.85kg (March-September, 2016). There were four treatments as: A=100% Cassava peels (control); B=75% Cassava+25% C. cajan; C=50% Cassava+50% C cajan; D=25% Cassava+75% C. cajan hay. Result showed that C. cajan had better nutrient values with 15.53% Crud Protein (CP) and 30.55% Crude Finer (CF) contents than cassava peels with 4.70 % CP and 13.35 % CF. Inclusion of C. cajan as supplement to cassava peels in the diets of WAD goat significantly lowered (p<0.05) DM intake. CP intake increased with increased hay supplementation. CP, CF, NDF, ADF and ADL intakes were highest in goats fed diet D. Nutrient digestibility and N retained were best under treatment D-75% C. cajan inclusion. Consequently, the highest weight gain (16.98 g/day) was recorded for goats fed diet D. The higher values of 27.33% Packed cell volume (PCV), 9.12 g/dl Haemoglobin (Hb), 12.07 x106 ml Red blood cell (RBC) and 4.91 x103 ml White blood cell (WBC) counts for animals were obtained using treatment D that they were within the normal physiological range for healthy goat. پرونده مقاله

A study was conducted in May–July, 2019 to determine the nutritional values of selected forages consumed by ruminants in the derived Savannah zone of Nigeria. The leaves of plant species were separated, identified, washed, screened, air-dried and milled for chemical analyses and in vitro degradability measurement. Three West African Dwarf rams were used to ascertain the acceptability of these forages using cafeteria feeding trial method. Co-efficient of Preference (CoP) was then calculated. The experiment was of a completely randomized design and all data were statistically analyzed. The chemical analyses showed that the crude protein (CP) content of Mangifera indica (13.17%) was higher than Pennisetum purpureum (11.57%), Panicum maximum (9.57%) and Terminalia catappa (8.75%). The NDF of T. catappa (51.58%) was least compared to P. maximum (57.02%) which was the highest while P. maximum (37.10%), P. purpureum (54.66%) and M. indica (37.93%) were statistically (p <0.05) similar. However, P. maximum had the least value of ADF. The assayed macro-minerals concentrations were the highest in T. catappa but it had relatively high levels of phytate, saponin, alkaloids and tannin. At the end of incubation, in vitro gas production by P. maximum (5.00 ml/DM) was the highest compared to other species. Hence, rate of degradation varied. P. maximum was most preferred (with the highest CoP of 1.10) of the forages compared to other test forages. The relatively raised levels of antinutrients in T. catappa could be due to its low acceptability. It could be concluded that the forages had good nutritive value, adequate minerals composition with tolerable anti-nutrients levels and their preferential ranking from Panicum maximum>Pennisetum purpureum>Terminalia catappa>Mangifera indica indicating that they could be suitably recommended as sole or partial feed for ruminants. پرونده مقاله