Feed intake and digestibility co-efficient of West African Dwarf goats fed Bio-chemically treated Jatropha curcas kernel cake
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Date
2024
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Publisher
Nigerian Society of Animal Production
Abstract
Jatropha curcas is high in protein with about 58.1 percent crude protein content and a rich source of
essential amino acids, it would be an excellent feed resource for livestock if the antinutrients and toxicity
level is drastically reduced. The toxicity is primarily due to the presence of phorbolesters which limits its
use as an animal feed material. This study was aimed at evaluating the feed intake of West African Dwarf
goats fed bio-chemically treated Jatropha curcas kernel cake included in a cassava-based diet. The biochemical method involves the use of Hydrogen peroxide with Iron (iii) oxide as catalyst as pre-treatment
before the use of solid-state fermentation on the milled kernel cake. The inclusion level of the Jatropha
curcas kerne cake in the diet are 6 perecent each of B (60mg H202/kg cake treated with Penicillum
expansum) ,C 120mgH202/kg cake treated with Penicillum expansum), D (180mgH202/kg cake treated with
Penicillum expansum) respectively with the control having 12% soybean. There was a significant difference
in the dry matter intake (P<0.05) and other nutrient intake of animals in the treatment groups compared to
those on the control diet. There was also a significant difference (P<0.05) in the nutrient digestibility and
digestible nutrient intake of animals on the treatment compared to those on the control diet. The value of
Dry Mater Intake ranged from 2050 to 2750g/d, the apparent dry matterdigestibility ranged from 97.07 to
97.81%, the Dry Matter Digestible Nutrient Intake ranged from 1989.90 to2690g/d, while the the average
weight gain ranged from 1.60 to 3.64g/animal/day. There was no sign of toxicity observed during this study.
The results of this study show that the bio-chemically treated Jatropha curcas kernel cake can be included
in the diet of WAD goats without any toxic effect on the animals.