EFFECT OF DIETARY INCLUSION OF ONION PEEL POWDER ON PERFORMANCE AND BLOOD PROFILE OF SHEEP FED GUINEA GRASS AND COWPEA HUSK BASED DIET
Author:
Okoruwa M. I, Eguabor C.O
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
The study was conducted to assess the effect of onion peel powder on performance and blood profile of sheep fed guinea grass and cowpea husk based diet. Sixteen West African dwarf female sheep of approximately 6 to 7 months old with average body weight of 6.00 ± 0.46kg were selected for the study. They were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. The compared treatment diets; T1, T2, T3 and T4 contained 0%, 1%, 2% and 3% inclusion of onion peel powder respectively.. All parameters examined were subjected to one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA). Results showed that diet T1 was significantly (p<0.05) higher in feed intake (278.24g/day), feed conversion ratio (7.78), ether extract digestibility (69.03%), cholesterol (64.01mg/ml) and urea (13.02 mg/ml). Sheep on T4 were significantly (p<0.05) increased in final weight (10.31kg), total and daily weight gain (4.03kg and 47.48g), digestibility of dry matter(72.66%), crude protein (71.01%), crude fibre (70.31%), ash (66.98%), with nitrogen free extract (70.34%), digestible crude protein(9.57%), total digestible nutrient (73.15%), packed cell volume (30.86%), haemoglobin (7.46g/dl), red blood cell (6.93 x106/ml), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (10.14pg), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (32.09%), white blood cell (8.71 x106/ml), lymphocytes (54.33%), eosinophils (4.49%), neutrophils (48.74%), monocytes (2.59%), total protein (7.18 g/dl), albumin (3.20g/dl), glucose (71.54mg/dl) and triglyceride (23.41mg/dl). However, significant difference did not occur in initial body weight, mean corpuscular volume, globulin and creatinine. It can be concluded that inclusion of 3% onion peel powder in supplementary diet enhance performance and blood profile of sheep
| Pages | 06-12 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Volume | 7 |
