No abstract

A twelve-week study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary inclusion of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) on growth performance and nutrient digestibility of West African dwarf (WAD) sheep. A total of 12 lambs (6 rams and 6 ewes) were randomly allotted to three treatment diets as follows: treatment I was a high roughage diet with no inclusion of S. cerevisiae; treatment II was a high roughage diet with 0.75 g of S. cerevisiae per kg of diet; treatment III was a high roughage diet with 1.5 g of S. cerevisiae per kg of diet. The chemical composition of the high roughage diet is as follows: dry matter (89.20%), organic matter (85.87%), crude protein (13.21%), crude fibre (16.40%), ether extract (3.30%), ash (4.33%), nitrogen free extract (51.96%), neutral detergent fibre (45.25%) and acid detergent fibre (26.62%) . Each group was made up of four replicates with one sheep serving as a replicate. There were significant (p < 0.05) differences among treatments in average daily feed intake (ADFI), and average daily weight gain (ADWG) while final body weight (FBW) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were not significantly (p > 0.05) affected. There were significant (p < 0.05) differences among treatments in dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) digestibility coefficients values. Based on these results addition of 1.5 g of S. cerevisiae per kg of diet is recommended.

This study was conducted to determine the effect on growth and reproductive performance of supplementing dried Centrosema pubescens leaf meal to Archachatina marginata snails. A total of 80 growing, medium-sized A. marginata snails were used. Twenty snails were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental diets as T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , and T 4 containing 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% dietary inclusion levels of dried C. pubescens leaves, respectively. Each diet constituted a treatment and each treatment was replicated four times with five snails per replicate. Results showed that snails under T 4 had the highest (P < .05) final body weight, average weight gain, and daily weight gain (346.89, 47.60, and 0.85 g, respectively) with the best feed conversion to meat rate of 2.12. The weekly feed intake and average body weight gain revealed the superiority of dietary T 4 in supporting the growth of snails more efficiently than other dietary treatments (T 1 , T 2 , and T 3) used in this study. The number of eggs laid, percentage fertility, and hatchability were highest (P < .05) for snails fed dietary T 4 with the least (P < .05) embryo mortality of 2.22%. Archachatina marginata snails fed 15% dietary inclusion of dried C. pubescens leaves (T 4) were the best in growth and reproductive performance.

No abstract

No abstract