Abstract
Shea nut cake (SNC) is one of the agro-industrial by-products that could be used as ruminants feed. A total of 12 West African dwarf young bucks were used in a completely randomized design for an 84-day study to evaluate the blood profiles of goats fed diets of 0 % (T1), 10% (T2) and 20% (T3)SNC. The results revealed that there were slight significant differences in few of the blood parameters measured among the treatments. The haemoglobin, packed cell volume (PCV) and red blood cell ranged from 8.33–9.88 g/dl, 20.95–22.05% and 6.51–7.06 × 106/l respectively. The concentrations of mean corpuscular volume (21.83–22.17 fl), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (7.58–8.50pg) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (33.00–34.73%) varied significantly (p < 0.05), white blood cell varied from 8.46 to 12.75 µl and lymphocytes (%) ranged from 51.27 to 53.78. For serum biochemistry, values obtained for aspartate aminotransferase and total protein were similar. Cholesterol, alanine amino transferase and albumin varied significantly among the treatment groups. Since the parameters measured were within the normal range for goats’ blood profile, hence, SNC does not have any deleterious effect on the health of the animals. It was concluded that SNC could be incorporated into the diet of goats up to 20% without posing health hazard on the animals.
Highlights
Goats play an important socio-economic role in the rural areas where most of the peasant farmers live (Anaeto, Tayo, Chioma, Ajao, & Peters, 2009) and form an integral part of the cultural life and system of Nigeria’s peasantry (Ajala, 2004)
The sourcing for safe, readily and locally available feed ingredients to enhance food production prompted this research which aimed at assessing the impact of Shea nut cake (SNC) diets on the blood profiles of West African dwarf goats
Crude protein (CP) concentration of the formulated diets decreased as the SNC level increased
Summary
Goats play an important socio-economic role in the rural areas where most of the peasant farmers live (Anaeto, Tayo, Chioma, Ajao, & Peters, 2009) and form an integral part of the cultural life and system of Nigeria’s peasantry (Ajala, 2004). Notwithstanding the importance of goats, its production is still hindered as a result of shortage of feed both in quantity and quality at some seasons of the year. Quality forage, which could have alleviated the problem of feed scarcity, declines during rainy season and convectional feedstuff such as grains and oil seeds which are available during this period are very expensive to be used as feed for ruminants. Shea nut cake (SNC), which is an oilseed by-product, has been identified as one of such alternatives. In Nigeria, the livestock feed industry is heavily dependent on, among others, oilseed resources such as groundnut cake, soybean cake, cotton seed cake and palm kernel meal (RMRDC, 2003)
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