**5. Animals and their management**

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 treatment, balanced for body weight.
