NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY AND NITROGEN UTILIZATION OF WEST AFRICAN DWARF GOATS FED DIETS CONTAINING GRADED LEVELS OF Rauvolfia vomitoria LEAVES

Abstract

One of the recent strategies for improving the nutrient utilization in ruminants is using phytogenic additives to manipulate the ruminal microbial ecosystem for efficient feed conversion. This study investigated the potentials of Rauvolfia vomitoria leaves as feed additives for goats. Feed consisted of Megathyrsus maximus and  concentrate combined in the ratio of 7:3 on dry matter (DM) basis. Dried milled leaves of R. vomitoria were added into the diet of West African Dwarf goats at 0, 1, 2, and 3% of feed DM to form four dietary treatments for 39d. Four WAD goats were used for digestibility studies in a 4x4 Latin square arrangement. Each animal was fed at 5% body weight (DM) with the concentrate diet offered first to the animals from 8:00am daily and the basal diet an hour after in separate feeding troughs. Data generated were subjected to one – way analysis of variance using SAS (2002). Result showed that the dry mater and crude protein digestibility of WAD goats recorded the highest (p<0.05) value of 83.28% and 86.79% at 1% inclusion while the least (p<0.05) value were observed at 0% inclusion level. Inclusion of 1% also showed the highest nitrogen utilization of WAD goats. It can therefore be concluded that 1% inclusion is recommended as it enhanced digestibility and nitrogen

utilization.