GROWTH PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF PREGNANT WEST AFRICAN DWARF (WAD) DOES FED MULBERRY (Morus alba) LEAVES AS SUBSTITUTE FOR Panicum maximum.

Abstract

A 150-day study was conducted to evaluate the growth performance of intensively managed West African Dwarf (WAD) does fed Panicum maximum substituted with Morus alba leaves with an equal proportion of cassavapeel based concentrate. Twenty-five (25) West African Dwarf does with an average live weight of 10-13kg were used in a Completely Randomized Design with animals grouped into five treatments of five replicates each and housed in individual pens.Five diets T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 were formulated to contain 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%Morus alba substitution levels. Results revealed that there was no significant (P>0.05) differences on all the growth performance parameters measured. The highest value of average daily weight gain (60.19 g/day) was observed in goats fed diet T3, while the lowest (37.27 g/day) value was obtained in goats fed diet T1. Goats placed on diet T3 had the best feed conversion ratio value (14.38). This study, however, concluded that Morus alba substitution in feeding traditionally managed WAD goats enhanced growth performance without health challenges to the animals during gestation. Morus alba inclusion at 50% in West African dwarf goat‘s diet had effects on the overall performance of the animals with a potential improvement in feed conversion ratio.