Effects of mixed Gmelina arborea and Moringa oleifera leaf meal inclusion on growth performance and blood profile of Red Sokoto bucks fed Digitaria smutsii hay based diets

Abstract

The use of browse plants as supplement have been shown to enhance intake, improve growthrate and increase reproduction in ruminants. However, most of these forage trees have notbeen widely used because they often contain anti-nutritional compounds that havedeleterious effects on animal performance Moringa oleifera and Gmelina arborea arewidely distributed in many locations in the tropics. Moringa oleifera and Gmelina arboreaare promising plants which could contribute to increased intake of some essential nutrientsand health-promoting phytochemicals and also provide cheaper alternative forages of highquality for ruminants. The study was carried out to investigate the effect of mixed Gmelinaarborea and Moringa oleifera (GMMO) leaf meal inclusion on the growth performance andblood profile of goats fed Digitaria smutsii hay based diets. Twenty intact Red Sokoto bucksbetween 4-5 months of age with an average weight of 12.00 kg were used. The bucks wererandomly allocated to four treatments with five animals per treatment in a completelyrandomized design. Gmelina arborea and Moringa oleifera leaf meals were mixed at ratio of75 and 25% respectively and included at 0, 10, 20 and 30% in a 40% Digitaria smutsii haybase. Each level of inclusion serves as a dietary treatment. The parameters measured werefeed intake, body weight gain, haematological and biochemical constituents. Feed cost andproximate analysis of GMMO were also carried out. The results showed that inclusion ofGMMO leaf meal improved dry matter intake of bucks. Dry matter intake ranged from310.28 g/d in T to 372.61 g/d in T . Weight gain and average daily gain were significant 1 3(P<0.05) higher in bucks fed 20% GMMO leaf meal (4.20kg and 46.67 g/d) respectively thanthe other treatments. Regression analysis showed 25% inclusion as the optimal level ofGMMO leaf meal inclusion in the diets of growing bucks. The haematological andbiochemical parameters of Red Sokoto bucks measured were within the normal range forhealthy goats. The cost-benefit analysis showed that goats fed 20% GMMO leaf meal gavemore profit than those on other treatments. Net profit was highest in 20% followed by 30%,10% and 0% inclusion (N1108.30, N 853.90, N506.20 and N485.00) respectively. This studyconcludes that the mixture of gmelina and moringa leaf meal can be included at 25% in thediets of Red Sokoto bucks for improved productivity.