Growth Performance and Nutrient Digestibility of Savanna Brown Goat Fed Maxigrain® Enzyme Treated Rice Bran Supplemented with Shea Butter Leaves

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the growth and nutrient digestibility of savanna brown goats fed Maxigrain^® enzyme treated rice bran. A total number of 36 billy goats were assigned to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. Treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4 had 0, 25, 50 and 75% level of Maxigrain^® enzyme treated rice bran respectively. The experiment lasted for eight (8) weeks. Dry matter intake was higher (p< 0.05) in the goats fed treatment 4. Goats on treatment 1 had higher (p<0.01) crude protein digestibility values than the other dietary groups. Crude ether extracts of Maxigrain® enzyme treated rice bran (Treatment 1 and 2) caused significant (p<0.05) improvement in body weight gain in the goats which was attributed to an improvement (p<0.05) in dry matter and nutrients digestibility, and nitrogen metabolism. Crude fibre digestibility of goats in treatment 2 had the highest value and were significantly higher (p<0.05) than all the other treatments. However, the growth performance results revealed that there were no significant differences (p>0.05) were found for initial weight, final weight, daily weight gain, daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio which indicated that they were not influenced by the treatments. From this study, it was concluded that Maxigrain^® treated rice husk could be included in the diet of savanna brown goats up to 75 % for optimum performance.