SERUM BIOCHEMICAL INDICES OF WEST AFRICAN DWARF RAMS FED SELECTED BROWSE PLANTS AND GUINEA GRASS HAY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.5651Keywords:
Tropical browse plant fodders, WAD rams, Serum biochemical indicesAbstract
Serum metabolites of West African dwarf growing rams fed selected browse fodders with guinea grass hay basal diet for 70days feeding trial was conducted at Teaching and Research Farm of Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology Igbo-ora, Nigeria. Sixteen (16) growing WAD rams of age 6-9 months with body weight of 9.00 - 12.00kg were randomly allocated to four treatments with four rams per treatment and 2 rams as replicate in a completely randomized design. The experimental diet was fed at 3% body weight of individual ram while G. arborea, S. sesban and F. thonningii fodders were fed at varied proportions with Panicum maximum hay. The compared treatment diets were: T1 (sole100%PM hay), T2 (70%PM hay: 30%GA), T3 (70%PMhay: 30%SS) and T4 (70% PM hay: 30%FT) and fed for each individual ram per day. Significant (p<0.05) differences were observed in all parameters determined across the dietary treatments. Ram fed diet T3 had the highest Total protein (6.41g/dl), while the lowest value (5.80g/dl) for TP was recorded on ram fed diet T₁. Ram fed diet T4 recorded least albumin (2.20g/dl) while highest albumin (2.80g/dl) was recorded in ram fed diet T3. However, rams fed T3 diet were observed to have the highest ALT value of 32.00IµL while those fed T4 diet had the lowest value of 15.00IµL. From the results, T3 proved to be the best diet of this study. The study revealed that 70%PM hay: 30%SS mixture diet has a good nutrient profile and enhanced the productivity of growing rams.