Effect of Varied Inclusion Levels of Alysicarpus vaginalis in Red Sokoto Bucks Diets on Intake, Digestibility and Nitrogen Balance

Abstract

The work was carried out to study the intake and nutrient digestibility by Red Sokoto bucks fed grade levels of Alysicarpus vaginalis ina complete diet. Four red Sokoto bucks of average weight 17.40kg +2 were used in this study, in a 4 x 4 Latin Square arrangement. Involving four dieting treatments T1, T2, T3 and T4 containing 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% levels of inclusions of Alysicarpus vaginalis. The proximate analysis showed that the Alysicarpus vaginalis had 30.70% crude fibre, 12.56% crude protein and 47.29% Nitrogen free extract. The animals fed 30% Alysicarpus vaginalis had highest intake of all the nutrients. The result indicated that the apparent digestibility of organic matter (63.79%) and crude Protein (71.55%) was high (p<0.05) for animals fed 20% Alysicarpus vaginalis and had the best digestibility of almost all the nutrients. Thehighest Nitrogen retained as per cent of nitrogen intake 64.68% was obtained in animals fed 20% Alysicarpus vaginalis. It was concluded that DM intake, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen utilization of bucks can be enhanced by including 20% of Alysicarpus vaginalis in their diets.