Effect of Diets Containing Graded Levels of Eggshell Meal on Bone Parameters, Organ Weights and By-products of Growing West African Dwarf Goats

Abstract

A 12 week trial was conducted to investigate the effect of incorporating eggshell meal (ESM) at graded levels into the diets of West African Dwarf (WAD) bucks as a calcium source. Bone strength as well as other bone measurements, organ and by-products weights were evaluated. Twenty (20) WAD bucks weighing 5.7kg on the average were caged individually inside a conventional open-sided house. The bucks were randomly divided into four (4) groups, each group consisting of five (5) animals. The animals in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 were provided with diets containing 0.0%, 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% ESM respectively with group 1 serving as the control. The animals were given known quantity of supplementary feed, forage ( Andropogon gayanus corn) and water between 8 and 9am every morning. Two animals were randomly selected from each group and slaughtered for carcass analysis after which a pair of their femur bones was removed for bone measurements and strength test using the Universal testing machine. Results showed that increase in the level of ESM inclusion across treatments yielded significant variability (P 0.05) across treatments. The horns weight varied significantly (P 0.05) across the treatments. It was therefore concluded that growing WAD bucks can tolerate the inclusion of 1.5% properly sterilized ESM in their diet as source of Ca with no detrimental effect on bone parameters, organ and By-products weights.