EVALUATION OF SELECTED SERUM MACRO MINERALS IN WEST AFRICAN DWARF RAMS FEDCajanus cajan MEAL IN TOTAL MIXED RATION

Résumé

This study was conducted to evaluate selected serum macro-minerals in West African Dwarf (WAD) rams fed diets containing Cajanus cajan leaf meal (CCLM) at varied inclusion levels of 0% (T1), 5% (T2), 10% (T3), and 15% (T4) as supplement feed to replace palm kernel cake as protein source in total mixed rations with Panicum maximum as basal diet. Sixteen (16) WAD rams of age 6 - 9 months with body weight of 9.00 - 12.00 kg were used in a completely randomized designfor 56 days feeding trial. Two rams per treatment were selected and blood was collected for analysis at the end of the feeding trial. The result revealed significant difference (p<0.05) for calcium, potassium, phosphorus and sodium across the dietary treatments. The highest calcium value was observed in T2 (12.39 mg/dl) with T4 having the lowest value of 11.32 mg/dl. Rams fed T4 diet (15% CCLM) with Panicum maximum mixture had the highest potassium value (5.66 mg/dl) while those fed T1 had the lowest value of 3.16 mg/dl. It was observed that rams fed T1 (0% CCLM inclusion) had the highest phosphorus and sodium value of 5.10 mg/dl and 179.79 mg/dl respectively, while the lowest phosphorus and sodium value of 1.91 mg/dl and 116.36 mg/dlwas recorded in the T3 respectively. It can be concluded that Cajanus cajan leaf meal could be fed to growing rams up to 15% inclusion level without any deleterious effects in serum macro-minerals concentration of growing rams