Effect of Brewers’ Dried Grain on Growth Performance, Hematology and Serum Biochemistry indices of Yankasa Sheep

Abstract

The study was conducted to reveal the effect of brewers dried grain (BDG) on growth, haematology reproduction and lactation performance of Yankasa sheep. One experiment was design to study the proximate, mineral, amino acids and the anti- nutritional composition of brewers dried grain obtained from Kaduna brewery. A second experiment was also designed to determine the effect of feeding varying levels of brewers dried grain on feed intake, body weight gain, haematology, biochemical parameters and reproductive performance. The third experiment was design to determine the milk yield and composition from Yankasa ewes. Five treatment diets was designated D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5 formulated with maize component substituted with BDG at 0 %, 10 %, 20 %, 30 % and 40 %, respectively. The experimental animals were randomly allotted to five treatments groups with four replicates each comprising of one ewe per replicate in a complete randomized design and fed the formulated diet. The animals sourced from Biotechnology department of National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI), Shika Zaria. The dates of birth and weight at birth were taken. The ewes were used for the experiment at twelve week. The animal were intensively managed given the experimental diet in the morning and supplemented with forage (Digitaria smutti) afterward. The parameters measured in these experiments were feed intake, body weight gain, haematology values and biochemical values. A non-significant (P>0.05) difference was observed among the treatment groups in respect of feed intake, weight gain and haematology. Biochemical values, showed a significant (P<0.05) difference. It was concluded that maize can be replaced with BDG up to 40 %. This is nutritionally an effective means of improving animal growth. it is therefore, recommended that maize can be replaced with BDG without any negative effect