Dietary influence of Daniellia oliveri leaf meal (Dolm) on the growth and digestibility of intensively managed savannah brown goats.

This study was carried out to determine the dietary influence of Daniellia Oliveri Leaf Meal (DOLM) on the growth and digestibility of Savannah Brown goats. Forty five does with average initial weight of 10.66kg were used in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) which lasted for 90 days with the last 7days for digestibility trial. The animals were divided into four groups and allocated to 4 diets with DOLM inclusion levels of 0%, 20%, 30% and 40% in diets 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The dry matter intake was influenced (p<0.05) by dietary treatments, values obtained were 384.20g/kg, 320.60g/kg, 315.40g/kg and 300.60g/kg for T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. There was no significant (p>0.05) difference in the final weight across the treatments. However average weight gain decreases as the inclusion of DOLM increased in the diet with T1 having the highest value (15.53kg) and T4, the least value (14.40kg). There was a higher significant dry matter digestibility in T3 (94.60%) and T4 (95.10%) while the protein digestibility was higher in T1(63.30%) and T2 (63.10%) groups.Apparent nutrient digestibility values were all significantly (p<0.05) high. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in the urinary nitrogen value of all the groups. Howeversignificant difference (p<0.05) were observed in retained nitrogen values of T1 (20.78%) and T2 (20.40%) which were higher than T3 (11.15%) and T4 (10.35%). The cost/kg gain was significantly (p<0.05) better in T4 but lower in T1. The study has shown that DOLM can be used to replace conventional ruminant feed supplements up to 40% level of inclusion in the diet of Savannah Brown Goats without adversely affecting health status.Key words: Daniellia oliveri, Growth, Digestibility, Savannah Brown Goat