Influence of dietary supplementation of <i>Piliostigma reticulatum</i> pods with or without charcoal on growth performance, hematology, and carcass traits in goats fed a concentrate-based diet

Abstract

This study evaluated the growth performance, hematology and carcass attributes of goats fed diet supplemented with Piliostigma reticulatum pod meal (PRPM). Nine Red Sokoto bucks (BW, 12.5kg, 5 months old) were randomly assigned to three isocaloric and isonitrogenious diets namely; a basal diet without PRPM (Control), diet supplemented with 20% PRPM, and diet supplemented with 20% PRPM and 0.03% charcoal in a completely randomized design. The goats were fed for 60 d, and slaughtered. Diet had no effect (p>0.05) on dry matter intake, body weight gain and feed efficiency in goats. The control goats had lower (p<0.05) packed cell volume than the goats fed other dietary treatments. Dietary treatments did not affect the concentration of hemoglobin, white blood cells, and red blood cells in goats. Slaughter weight, dressing percentage, and weight of prime cuts did not differ (p>0.05) among the treatments. These results suggest that PRPM could be utilized in diets without compromising growth performance, hematological indices, and carcass traits in goats.

Keywords: dressing percentage, feed efficiency, packed cell volume, prime cuts, red blood cell