Growth performance and rumen fermentation characteristics of West African Dwarf bucks fed dietary Cochlospermum planchonii rhizome

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate the optimum inclusion level of Cochlospermum planchonii in diets of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats. Twenty five (25) WAD bucks aged 6 to 8 months and assigned to five treatments (T 1 -T 5 ) of five goats each were used. Goats in T 1 were given normal diet and served as the control, while those in T 2 , T 3 , T 4 and T 5 were respectively given diets with inclusion levels of 5, 10, 20 and 40% C. planchonii. Feed intake, body weight (BWT) and body condition score (BCS) were evaluated weekly from day 0 (D0) to D84, while rumen pH, rumen ammonia, urinary and faecal nitrogen were assessed on D84. The total forage intake across the treatments was comparable (p> 0.05), but the total concentrate intake by T 5 (12.1 ± 0.8 kg) was significantly (p < 0.05) lower than the rest of the treatments. Supplementation of C. planchonii was associated with enhanced weight gain among the supplemented groups. The rumen pH of T 4 and T 5 were 6.2 ± 0.04 and 6.1 ± 0.1 respectively and these were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than those of T 1 (5.8 ± 0.1), T 2 (5.7 ± 0.1) and T 3 (5.6 ± 0.1), 6 h post feeding. At 12 h post feeding, the pH of T 5 was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than the rest of the treatments, while at 18 h post feeding, there was no significant difference in the rumen pH of all the treatments. The mean total volatile fatty acid produced by T 1 (59 ± 8.9) was significantly (p< 0.05) higher than that of T 5 (37. 8 ± 6.3). It was therefore, concluded that supplementation of C. planchonii in diets of West African Dwarf goats up to 20% could exert beneficial effects on their productivity.