Haematological profile of West African Dwarf Goats Fed Diets Containing Graded Levels of Eggshell Meal

Abstract

A 12-week trial was conducted to investigate the effect of incorporating Eggshell meal(ESM) at graded levels into West African Dwarf(WAD) bucks diet. Haematological parameters were evaluated. Twenty (20) growing 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) and water between 8 and 9 am every morning. Initial blood samples were collected and analysed after the acclimatization period of 7days. The same procedure was repeated at the 6th and 12th week marking the end of the experiment. Haematological parameters were compared by weeks, significant difference (P<0.001) was observed on Packed Cell Volume and Haemoglobin. Significant difference (P<0.0001) was also observed on Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin, Mean Cell Volume and Red Blood Cell as well as Monocytes at P<0.05. The animals suffered gastroenteritis between the 9th and 10th week thus the ESM and supplementary feed were cultured. The ESM culture isolated Escherichia coli thus the animals were treated with Streptomycin. It was therefore concluded that ESM may be a rich source of Calcium for growing WAD goats but must be thoroughly sterilized to yield desired result.