EFFECT OF FEEDING COMPLETE DIETS CONTAINING RICE STRAW ON CARCASS BY-PRODUCTS AND VISCERAL ORGANS OF FATTENED YANKASA RAMS

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the carcass by-products and visceral organs of fattened Yankasa rams fed complete diets containing rice straw. Twelve (12) Yankasa sheep (rams) were used for the experiment. The animals were randomly distributed to 4 treatments with 3 animals per treatment, each ram served as a replicate and an adjustment period of a week was allowed for the animals before data collection commenced. The feeding trial lasted for a period of 70 days. A Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was used. Data collected was analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results of this experiment suggests that nutrients in all diets impacted positively and similarly on carcass characteristics and visceral organs of fattened rams with the utilization of available nutrient to rams fed varying levels of rice straw. In this study, it was observed that 8.75% rice straw increased carcass weight compared with rams fed other diets. The improved carcass weight could be attributed to the effect of the laxative action of rice straw in the gut and fibre content of rice straw which supports increased carcass weight. From the study, it can be concluded that rice straw fed had no adverse effect on the carcass by-products and visceral organs characteristics of fattened rams. Therefore, it is recommended that rice straw up to 26.26 % could be included in the fattened rams’ diet.