| Abstrakt: |
The effects of periodic administration of garlic extract on performance and carcass characteristics of grazing lambs was studied using West African Dwarf lambs in an experiment which lasted 12 weeks. Twelve (12) West African dwarf Lambs with an average weight of 12.00 ±0.77 kg were allotted to 3 treatment groups with 4 animals per group in a completely randomized design experiment which lasted for 12 weeks. Treatment 1 (T1) served as control group with no garlic extract, Treatment 2 (T2) were the group given 5ml garlic extract weekly and Treatment 3 (T3) received 5ml garlic extract every 2 weeks. The daily weight gain was influenced by the administration of garlic extract, with T3 having the highest gain of 89.29g/day followed by 50.60g for T2 while the control group (T1) recorded the lowest daily weight gain of 43.16g. The Hot carcass weight, Empty body weight, dressing percentage, kidney fat score, external fat score, meat proximate composition, meat pH, water holding capacity and weight of offals were not affected (P>0.05) by the administration of garlic extract. The dressing percentage on the basis of slaughter body weight are; 40.52, 41.08 and 42.80 for T1, T3 and T2 respectively. The kidney fat score were also similar (P>0.05) among treatment groups but a slight decrease from 3.33 in T1 to 2.00 in T2 was observed as the frequency of garlic administration increases. The weights of the heart, lungs, liver, kidney, spleen, abdominal fat, blood and gastrointestinal tract were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by the administration of garlic extract but has numerically decreased abdominal fat with T2 having the lowest value of 64.33g while the control group T1 recorded the highest value of 159.33g. The administration of garlic extract can be use to reduced the level of fat deposition in the gastrointestinal tract and the kidney of sheep thus improving the quality of mutton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
