TITLE:
Performance and Blood Profile of Grower West African Dwarf (WAD) Bucks Fed Graded Levels of Toasted Baobab (Adansonia digitata) Seed Meal
AUTHORS:
Rose Nenrotmwa Yakubu, John Adisa Ayoade, Juliana Oloche, Stephen Azi Ashom
KEYWORDS:
Baobab, Performance, Blood, Haematology, Biochemistry
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.12 No.1,
December
9,
2021
ABSTRACT: An experiment was conducted to evaluate the
performance and blood parameters of West
African Dwarf (WAD) bucks fed graded levels of toasted baobab seed meal
for 84 days. Baobab seeds were washed, sun-dried and toasted uniformly using a
cast iron pan. The toasted baobab seeds were crushed with a roller mill
grinding machine to make baobab seed meal (BSM). The BSM was included at 0%, 25%, 50% and 75% levels in
diets 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively to replace soybean. Each treatment was
replicated four times in a completely randomized design. Uncoagulated blood
samples were collected from WAD bucks at the end of the 84 days’ feeding trial and analysed for packed cell
volume (PCV), haemoglobin concentrate (Hb), red blood cells (RBC) and white blood cells (WBC). The mean corpuscular
haemoglobin volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), platelets,
neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, and basophils were calculated
using PCV, RBC and Hb. The blood meant for serological analysis was centrifuged
at 1000 G for 10 minutes, after
which the serum was separated and used for determining serum total protein
(Tp), albumin, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) and serum
glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT). The inclusion of baobab seed meal up to 50% in the experimental
diet did not have any negative effect on the performance of the goats
and did not pose any health challenge to the animals during the study period.