| Popis: |
Eighteen growing West African dwarf WAD goats of equal number of sexes, aged 6-7 months with average weight of 6.23 +0.50kg were used in a 9-wk feeding trial to study the influence of dietary supplementation of magnesium sulphate (MgSO, 7H,0) at 0, 1 and 2% in isonitrogenous (11.50%CP) and isocaloric (2.83 ME Mcal/kg) diets with a view to estimating Mg requirement for maintenance. The three levels of supplementation were used to obtain three diets 1, 2 and 3 containing 0.02, 0.13 and 0.22% Mg respectively. The goats were divided into three groups of six animals, and each group was randomly allotted to one of the three diets. Results showed that Mg supplementation had significant (P0.05). The general trend depicted an increasing dietary Mg supplementation with decreased DMI, body weight change, serunt GLC, TP, PCV, Hb concentration, RBC and WBC counts at 2% Mg level of supplementation. Dietary supplementation of Mg at 1% (D2) however supported best animal performance as evidenced by the outstanding responses of the goats in terms of DMI (0.446 g/day/kgLW), body weight change (30.01g/day), feed conversion 114.48), Mg digestibility (80.51%), Mg balance (0.091 g/day/kgLW), PCV (36%) and TP (70.70g/1). 72 x model relating Yg intake to balance gave Mg minimum requirement of young WAD goats for : - kgLIT with significant (P < 0.05) correlation coefficient (r = 0.98). Dietary O V ER H. however must not exceed 1% of the total diet to avert a decline in animal |
