ACCEPTABILITY AND PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF WEST AFRICAN DWARF SHEEP FED DIETS MIXED WITH SOYA BEAN AND PALM KERNEL OILS

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the acceptability and performance characteristic of West African Dwarf sheep fed diets mixed palm kernel oil (PKO) and soyabean oil (SBO). Sixteen (16) West African Dwarf sheep of average weight 12.50±0.5kg were allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. The sheep were fed with the experimental diets mixed with palm kernel oil and soyabean oil with inclusion level of 0:0g/day, 10:5g/day, and 7.5:7.5g/day, 5:10 g/day of SBO: PKO as treatment 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively for 16 weeks. Free choice intake was determined by cafeteria method using two indices; Coefficient of preference (CoP) and percentage preference (Pp) while for growth performance study, animal were randomly allotted to the four dietary treatment where feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio were determined. The results revealed that the free choice intake of the diet (493.75-560.68g/day) was significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments. The highest percent preference (27.03%) was recorded with rams fed diets mixed with 5:10g/day PKO: SBO and was ranked 1st.Rams fed diet mixed with 5:10g/day PKO: SBO also recorded the highest daily weight gain (54.14 g/day) which was significant (p<0.05) across the treatments. The metabolic weight gain (1.93-3.09 W0.75 g/day) were significantly (p<0.05) different among the treatments. It was therefore concluded that diets mixed with palm kernel oil and soyabean oil at 5:10g/day is best accepted, preferred and exhibited the best feed conversion ratio without any adverse effect on the West African Dwarf sheep.