TITLE:
PERFORMANCE, OXIDATIVE STRESS AND IN VITRO STUDIES OF KALAHARI, WAD AND KALAWAD DOES AND THEIR KIDS FED DIETS CONTAINING TURMERIC POWDER
NAME: ODERINWALE Olatunde Akeem
MATRIC NO: PG 11/0176
CENTRE: Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Development and Sustainable Environment
PROGRAMME: Livestock Science and Sustainable Environment
DEGREEAWARDED: Ph.D AgSE (Ruminant Production)
DEFENCE DATE: 20th September, 2018
YEAR OF ADMISSION: 2014/2015 Session
ABSTRACT
The overall wellbeing of animals is dependent partly on nutritional plane which in turns affect the growth and survivability of offsprings produced. When all the processes involved in the feeding to achieve production goals are not properly guided, this is bound to affect the animal and environment negatively. Thus, a study was conducted to evaluate the performance, oxidative stress (OS) and in vitro studies of Kalahari (KR), West African Dwarf (WAD) and KalaWAD (KWD) does and their kids fed diets containing turmeric powder. Forty five dry and healthy primiparous does consisting of 15 does/breed and divided into 5 does per/treatment/breed were used. Dietary treatments fed at 5% bodyweight were concentrate diet (CD) as TU-0; CD+2g/kg turmeric powder inclusion (TP) as TU-2g; and CD+5g/kg TP as TU-5g. Brachaiaria ruziziensis (BR) was used as basal diet. Oestrous synchronization was done twice using Lutalyse, while mating was done by KR bucks. Feeding trial for does lasted for 162days pre-natal and 90days postnatal/lactation. Rumen liquor was collected from the does at 20th week of prenatal feeding for in vitro studies of three feed types (concentrate; BR; and 75% concentrate+25% BR). A total of 5 kids produced/breed/treatment was used for kids’ evaluation which lasted for 90days pre-weaning and 4weeks post-weaning after being fed the dietary treatments at 5% bodyweight. Data obtained were arranged in a 3×3 factorial layout in a Completely Randomized Design, while Analysis of Variance was done using SAS 9.2. Results of the study revealed that KR fed TP-2g had overall best (p<0.05) prenatal growth performance in terms of weight gains (17.65kg, 119.40g/day). WAD fed TP-2g and TP-5g had the lowest weight gains (9.51kg, 65.57g/day). For reproductive performance, KWD fed TP-5g and WAD fed TP-0 had significantly (p<0.05) highest (156.8days) and lowest (144.2days) values for gestation lengths respectively. KR fed TP-5g recorded kids with highest (p<0.05) birth weight (3596.67g), while WAD fed TP-2g had lowest birth weight of 1853.13g. KR fed TP-5g had highest (p<0.05) post-natal weight gains of 1.06kg and 11.80g/day while weight losses of 4.42kg and 50.26g/day were recorded for KWD fed TP-0. KR fed TP-2g had highest (p<0.05) milk yield which peaked at week 4 with 1560ml/24hrs, whereas WAD fed TP-0 recorded lowest milk yield that peaked at week 6 with 464ml/24hrs. Milk protein (5.12%) and total solid (22.80%) were highest (p<0.05) for KR fed TP-5g. For OS markers, KWD fed TP-2g had reduced (p<0.05) value of 2.70u/ml for TBARS, while KR fed TP-0 had highest value (7.17u/ml). Kids produced by KR fed TP-2g had highest (p<0.05) pre-weaning weight gains of 12.51kg and 148.93g/day. Highest (p<0.05) post-weaning weight gains of 1.80kg and 64.40g/day were recorded for KR kids fed TP-5g. KWD kids fed TP-2g had faecal egg count of 0, while 0.40×103EPG was obtained for KR kids fed TP-0. For in vitro studies, concentrate supplemented with TP-5g had highest (p<0.05) gas production. The study concluded that TP improved the overall performance of the goats especially KR and their kids, and also reduced methane production.