Effect of Replacement of Sweet Orange (Citrus Sinensis) Peel Meal with Maize Offal on Apparent Digestibility and Nutrient Intake of West African Dwarf (Wad) Goats

Abstract

Sixteen West African Dwarf (WAD) goats of mixed sexes, aged between 5 -7 months of age and having an average weight of 6.80 kg were used to assess the nutrient digestibility and intake of diets containing graded levels of sweet orange peel meal (SOPM) in a completely randomized design. Four diets A, B, C and D containing 0%, 12.5%, 25% and 50% SOPM respectively were formulated and fed to the WAD goats for 84 days. Results show that there was no effect (p>0.05) of treatment on dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, crude fibre, nitrogen free extract and ether extract digestibility of WAD goats. Nutrient intake was also not affected (p>0.05) among the treatment groups except ether extract intake where treatments A, B, and C were significantly higher (p>0.05) than treatment D, while between treatment A, B and C there was no difference (p>0.0). The study shows that SOPM can be used to replace maize offal up to 50% without negative effect on nutrient digestibility and intake of WAD.