Growth performance and nutrient digestibility of growing sheep fed a concentrate diet supplemented with some plant oils

Abstract

The study was conducted using locally available plant oils (garlic oil, Soybean oil and groundnut oil) to determine growth performance and nutrient digestibility of lambs. Sixteen (16) Uda lambs were used for this study. Dietary treatments formulated comprised Treatment 1 (T1) is the control diet with no oil additive. Treatment 2 (T2) contained 30 ml/kg garlic oil, Treatment 3 (T3) had 30 ml/kg Soybean oil while 30 ml/kg groundnut oil was added in Treatment 4 (T4). The results of growth performance showed that there was significant difference (P<0.05) between treatment means in final weight, basal feed intake and dry matter intake as % body weight and feed conversion ratio while average daily gain, dry matter intake, supplement feed intake and methane were not significantly (P>0.05) different between the treatments groups. Nutrient digestibility results showed that there was no significant (P>0.05) difference in Dry matter, Ash and Acid detergent lignin digestibilities between treatment means, while crude protein, crude fibre, ether extract, acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre, hemicellulose and cellulose digestibilities were significantly influenced (P<0.05) by treatments (garlic, soybean and groundnut oils). It is concluded that, the inclusion of different plant oils in the diets of Uda lambs led to a significant increase in their daily live weight gain Groundnut oil supplementation resulted in the highest growth performance among the oils used.