The blood profile and histology of selected tissues (kidney, lungs, intestine, and epididymis) of Balami Sheep fed Shea Cake meal supplement was investigated. A total of thirty-two (32) sheep of the average weight range of 11.75-14.75kg comprising an equal number (16) of males and females were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized experimental design with eight sheep per treatment for twelve weeks duration. Treatment 1 (T1) was a control diet and had zero inclusion level of Shea cake meal (SCM), while treatments 2,3, and 4 had 10%,15%, and 20%  inclusion of SCM, respectively. At the twelfth week of the experiment, two blood samples of 5ml each were taken from each animal from the jugular vein. The first set was preserved in Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid (EDTA) bottle for haematological parameters, while the second samples were preserved without EDTA for serum examination. Representative samples of tissues were randomly selected and slaughtered for gross microscopic examination. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) at various levels of inclusion for parameters investigated. The white blood cell (WBC), Red blood cell (RBC), and Packed cell volume (PCV) recorded the highest values at T3 (15% inclusion level) (13.42 x109/L), 2.92x1012/L, 3.75%, respectively). The serum parameters were significantly(p <0.05)different among the treatments. Total protein ranges from 54.78(mg/dl) (T1) - 60.51(mg/dl) (T2), Cholesterol70.15(mg/dl) (T1) - 78.00(mg/dl) (T4). Iron ranges from 58.15(ug/dl) (T1) - 62.88(ug/dl) (T3).The histopathology of tissues (kidney, lungs, intestine, and epididymis) showed no alteration across the treatments (P= .05) in the gross microscopic examinations. No lesion was observed in the lungs, kidney, epididymis, and intestine. The results showed that shea cake meal posed no health risk to Balami sheep and as such recommended as a good supplement in the diets of the sheep.

Growth response, carcass characteristics and meat quality of West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep fed Shea Cake Meal (SCM) supplement was investigated. A total of 24 WAD sheep of average body weight ranges from 11-12.65 kg comprising of twelve (12) males and twelve (12) females were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments with six animals per treatment in a completely randomized design in a twelve (12) weeks experimental period. Treatment 1 was control and had no inclusion of SCM. Treatments 2, 3 and 4 had 10%, 15% and 20% inclusion of SCM. Results were significantly different (P<0.05) across treatments. Average weight gain ranged from 10.0 kg (SCM-10) to 13.12 kg (SCM-15). T3 recorded highest values for average feed intake (AFI) at a record value of 63.50 kg. T2 had the least feed conversion ratio of 4.81. The carcass quality and sensory evaluation were significantly affected (P<0.05) across the treatments. Hot carcass weight (HCW) ranged from 18.90 kg (SCM-10) to 20.85 kg (SCM-15). Cold carcass weight was recorded 18.05 kg (SCM-10) and 19.95 kg (SCM-20), respectively. Minimum chilling loss of 3.96% was recorded at SCM-15 inclusion level. Animals on SCM-15 inclusion recorded the highest value of 7.55, 7.25 and 7.25 respectively for appearance, tenderness and overall acceptability. SCM-20 had highest value of 7.50 for juiciness compared to SCM-10 and SCM-15 with recorded values of 6.80 and 7.20, respectively. The study showed that all the dietary inclusion was satisfactory as feed for small ruminants without any deleterious effect on their performance as well as on carcass yield and meat quality. Inclusion level of SCM-15 supplement had highest overall performance when fed to (WAD) sheep.

Risks inherent in banking businesses should be managed to prevent financial losses to the sector’s stakeholders and negative externalities to the global economy. To this end, this study examines the effect of risk management on the performance of deposit money banks in Nigeria. A sample of eight (8) deposit money banks with international authorization are purposively selected out of 12 deposit money banks due to data availability. Panel data analysis techniques were adopted to analyze the secondary data that were obtained from the annual reports of banks. Findings based on the disaggregated model results reveal that both liquidity and capital risk variables exert a negative but insignificant effect on performance. However, credit risk drives performance of the internationally authorized banks positively and significantly. Furthermore, Management quality (MQ) is the only control variable that has a significant influence on the performance of the selected deposit money banks. The study concludes that credit risk and management quality significantly and positively drive performance among the financial entities.