NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY AND PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF WISTAR ALBINO RATS FED PROCESSED SICKLE POD (Senna obtusifolia) LEAF MEALBASED DIETS

Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted for 28 days to evaluate the nutrient digestibility and productive performance of wistar albino rats fed processed sickle pod (Senna obtusifolia) leaf meal (SOLM) –based diets. Five experimental diets were compounded to contain 0 and 20% each of the sun-dried, boiled, fermented fresh and boiled and fermented SOLM designated as T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively. A total of 90 growing albino rats with an initial average weight of 13.52 – 14.48 g were randomly allocated to the dietary treatments in a completely randomized design replicated 3 times with 6 rats each. The apparent nutrient digestibility indicated significant (P<0.05) variation except the nitrogen-free extract and energy. The apparent nutrient digestibility in the rats fed the processed SOLM based-diets indicated similar trend.The dry matter, crude protein and crude fibre digestibility in rats fed the processed SOLM-based diets range from 66.75 to 68.15%, 64.45 to 66.71% and 30.22 to 34.61%. The productive performance was not significantly (P>0.05) different except for the feed intake which indicated significant (P<0.05) variation. The highest total feed intake was recorded in albino rats fed the control diet 0% SOLM (365.40 g) and 20% boiled and fermented SOLM (334.32 g). The overall weight gain among the albino rats fed the processed SOLM-based diets were not significantly (P>0.05) different. It was concluded that, the different processed SOLM-based diets were better digested and had enhanced the productive performance of the albino rats. However, the boiled and fermented SOLM-based diet indicated better nutrient digestibility and growth performanceand is therefore the most recommended for feeding albino rats.