Intake, nutrient digestibility and rumen ecology of West African dwarf sheep fed palm kernel oil and wheat offal supplemented diets

Abstract

Dried cassava peels (DCP), wheat offal (WO) and palm kernel oil (PKO) are readily available in the tropics during the dry season. Sixteen rams aged 15 months with weight range of 11.07 ±0.8kg were randomly divided into four treatments with four replicates in a CRD. The treatments were: T1 - 100% DCP, T2 - 80% DCP + 20% WO, T3 - 77% DCP + 20% WO + 3% PKO and T4 - 97% DCP + 3% PKO. Parameters studied were feed intake, nutrient digestibility, total volatile fatty acids and microbial population. The dry matter intake values obtained were 869.98, 8415.89, 784.36 and 462.16g/dl for Tl, T2, T3 and T4 respectively with significant differences (P < 0.05) between Tl — T3 against T4. Nutrient digestibility had significant differences (P < 0.05) amongst treatments for all parameters studied except in Neutral detergent fibre with no significance. The dry matter digestibility increased from 82.61% in Tl to 91.12% in T4, crude protein digestibility ranged from 82.89% to 89.98% for Tl and T2 respectively. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) between T2 and T4, also between T3 and T4. Hemi cellulose appeared to be the most digestible nutrient studied. Rumen pH ranged from 6.00 to 6.70 for T2 and T4 respectively. The result was similar (P > 0.05) statistically across the treatments, except in T2. Ammonia nitrogen increased with supplementation of WO and PKO. However, supplementation of DCP with WO and PKO at 3% inclusion improved digestibility, but depressed feed intake in WAD sheep.