**8. Results**

248 Agricultural Science

The study was carried out in the teaching and Research Farm, University of agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. (Latitude 7o 5.5'N – 7o 8'N, Longitude 3o 11.2' – 3o3.5'E and Latitude 76.

Twenty healthy growing WAD rams of about 8-10 months of age, with average body weight of 10.2kg were used for the experiment. The WAD rams were separated from the rest of the flock in the small ruminant unit of the teaching and research farm for three weeks into previously disinfected, well ventilated and illuminated pens with wood shavings as litter materials. *Panicum maximum* was supplied in liberal amount. Five litres of water per day were supplied in each pen containing 5 rams. The animals were dewormed with Banminth II wormer (12.5g/kg body weight) and bathed with asuntol powder solution R (3g/litre of water) to eliminate possible ectoparasites. Clout R was applied at 4 weeks intervals along the spine of the animals to check against possible mange infection. At the end of 3 weeks preexperimental management period, the animals were grouped into 4 with five animals per

The basal diet for the experiment was guinea grass (Panicum maximum). Four concentrate diets with different levels of *adansonia digitata* (0, 5, 10, and 15%) were prepared. (Table 1). The four groups of WAD rams were randomly assigned to the treatments using completely randomized designed (CRD) with the treatment as the only source of variability apart from the experimental error. The animals were supplied concentrate twice daily between the hours of 8 and 9a.m and 3 and 4p.m at the rate of 0.4kg/animal/day out which 0.2kg was supplied in the morning and 0.2 in the afternoon so as to control feed wastages. Each group was also supplied 5 litres of water daily. The dietary treatment lasted for 10 weeks excluding one week dietary adjustment period. The one week dietary adjustment period was to flush out the residues of the previous feed from the gut of the rams thereby

After an adjustment period of one week, daily data collection followed. The animals were fasted by withdrawing feed only for 14- 16 hours and allowing them access to water. The body weight were taken after the fasting prior to the commencement of the experiment and taken again every fortnight. Feed residues and left-over water were recorded every morning

Pulse rate was taken for each animal by placing the finger on the femoral arteries on the medial aspect of the hind limb for one minute using a stop-watch, respiratory rate was taken for each animal by counting the number of flank movements per minute using stop-watch while the rectal temperature was taken using a clinical thermometer which was allowed to stay in the rectum of each animal for one minute before the reading was taken. (Fasoro, 1999). The physiological parameters (pulse rate, respiratory rate and rectal temperature) were taken for three consecutive days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) before the

**4.1 Materials and methods** 

**5. Animals and their management** 

treatment, balanced for body weight.

eliminating carry-over effects of previous feed.

before fresh feeds and water were supplied.

**7. Method of data collection** 

**6. Dietary treatment** 

Table 1 above showed the composition of experimental concentrate diet to be used for the experiment. Wheat offal was supplied at different percentages in the diets starting from 50, 45, 40 and 35 contained in the treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively, this was supplied in different levels because wheat offal had high percentage of dry matter content of 89% while adansonia digitata bark was low in dry matter content (Table 2). PKC, Bone meal, Salt and BDG was supplied in the diet with the same percentage of 20, 1, 1 and 28 in the treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Baobab bark was supplied in the diet with different levels 0, 5, 10 and 15 in the treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively.


Note: PKC- Palm kernel cake, BDG- Brewers dried grains

Table 1. Experimental Diet Composition (%)

Table 2 showed that Adansonia digitata bark had very high moisture content (89.3%) while it is low in dry matter content (10.7%). Also it contained 10.7% of crude protein and is high in crude fibre (32.16%) and Ash content (7.02%) while wheat offal had high dry matter content and low moisture content.


Table 2. Proximate composition of adansonia digitata bark and Wheat Offal

Performance and Heat Index of West African Dwarf (WAD)

performance in the WAD rams.

diet is safe for consumption.

induced the highest performance.

of science. Pg 383.

management.

services, Abuja.

Sci. pg 383

Agriculturalist. CTA-Macmillan, IITA. Pg 29

**10. Conclusion** 

**11. References** 

Rams Fed with *Adansonia digitata* Bark (Baobab) as Supplement 251

It appears that the grass was more preferred than the concentrate. The preference of the experimental rams for grass over concentrate supplement could be attributed to the more succulent nature of the grass than the dry and coarse concentrate supplement. The higher intake of grass in all the diets is an index of the better acceptability of the grass forage to the rams than concentrate diet containing baobab bark (Aina, 1998). However, the animals responded better in terms of ADG and DMI as the inclusion level increased in the concentrate diet than the control. The results also suggested clearly that the rams treated with D4 showed the highest total DMI, FCR and ADG compared with other treatment groups (Table 3). The increasing DMI of concentrate diet with increasing level of baobab bark inclusion up to the maximum (D4) is an indication that higher levels may still be accommodated by the animals. The increasing growth rate with increasing baobab inclusion in the diet suggested beneficial effects of the bark and an encouragement for better

The results of the environmental and physiological parameters (Table 4) show the uniformity in the environmental parameters and physiological status of the animals as well as lack of effect of dietary treatments on those physiological parameters of the animals. The pulse rate (beats/min) range of 76-78 agree with the records of Olusanya and Heath (1988) who stated that the heart rate of sheep falls into the range 60-120 beats/min. It can thus be inferred that the baobab bark inclusion in the diet of sheep up to 15% of the compounded

From this present study, it can be concluded that to get a better performance than control, the concentrate supplement must contain about 15% inclusion of Adansonia digitata in the diets of rams. However, higher level of inclusion of baobab bark beyond 15% in the concentrate supplement for sheep is recommended since the highest level in the trial (15%)

Nas, A.E (1979): Tropical legumes. Resources for the future. Washington- National Academy

Kang, B.T., Attah-Krah, A.N and Reynolds, L. (1999). Alley farming. The Tropical

Wilson, A.D (1969). A review of browse in the nutrition of grazing animals. Journal of Range

Carew, B.A.R. (1983). The potential of browse plants in the nutrition of small ruminants in

Keay, R.W.J., Onachie, C.F.A and Stanfield, D.P (1965). The Nigerian Trees. Federal

Nour, A.A magboul, B.I and Khuri, N.H (1980). Chemical composition of baobab fruit- Trop.

current state of knowledge. Edited by H.N. Le Hoverou. Pg 307-311. FNPCPS, (1980). National livestock survey, Federal department of livestock and pest control

Department of forest research, Ibadan, Nig Vol II. Pg 23 and 232.

the humid forest and derived savannah Zones in Nigeria. In: Browse in Africa. The


Table 3 contains the results of the performance of West African Dwarf rams fed Baobabbased concentrate supplement. The grass intake was slightly higher than concentrate supplement intake in all the treatment groups including the control. (0% Baobab inclusion

abc means in the same row with different superscripts are significantly different (P<0.05)

Table 3. Performance of West African Dwarf Rams on adansonia digitata based concentrate supplement

Table 4 showed that the differences among treatments for pulse rate, respiratory rate and rectal temperature at the end of the experiment were not significantly different from initial conditions. This shows uniformity in the environmental parameters, physiological state of the animals and lack of effect of dietary treatments on the animals.


Table 4. Performance of the animals to Heat index
