Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 93 (9): 907–910, September 2023/Article https://doi.org/10.56093/ijans.v93i9.131433 Effect of dietary supplementation of inulin with low and high concentrate diet on growth performance and nutrient digestibility in Barbari goats ABHISHEK KUMAR 1 , AHMAD FAHIM 1 , AMIT KUMAR 1 , D K SINGH 1 , GULAB CHANDRA 1 , NAZIM ALI 1 , DEBASHIS ROY 1 and ANUJ KUMAR 1* Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh 250 110 India Received: 15 December 2022; Accepted: 9 August 2023 ABSTRACT This study aimed to determine the effect of dietary supplementation of inulin on growth performance, feed conversion and nutrient digestibility in Barbari goats fed high and low concentrate diet for a period of 90 days. Twenty four yearling female Barbari goats were randomly divided into four equal groups (n=6) according to average body weight (18.24±1.16 kg). Treated animals in Group 1 were fed low concentrate diet (LCD; concentrate roughage ratio 40:60) and Group 2 (LCIN) with 2% inulin supplementation (% DM basis). Similarly, Group 3 was fed high concentrate diet (HCD; concentrate roughage ratio 60:40) and Group 4 (HCIN) with 2% inulin supplementation. Results showed that average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion efficiency (FCE) were higher in inulin supplemented groups than the non-supplemented group. There was no increase in mean live body weight (BW) and dry matter intake (DMI) with inulin supplementation either in LCD or HCD treatment groups.The mean body condition score (BCS) was also similar in all groups. However, faecal score (FS) was superior in inulin supplemented group observed after 30 days of feeding trial. There was significant improvement in the digestibility coefficient of crude protein and DCP intake. It was concluded that inulin supplementation either in high concentrate and low concentrate diet of growing goats resulted in improvement in growth performance, faecal score and nutrient digestibility. Keywords: Barbari goats, Digestibility, Faecal score, Growth performance, Inulin Present address: 1 Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. * Corresponding author email: drvetanuj@gmail.com Inulin as prebiotic in animal feed has several advantages as compared to other functional foods and has a range of different physiological functions such as bowel movement, gut microflora activities, absorption of minerals, lipid homeostasis and immunity mechanisms (Samanta et al. 2011, Waseem et al. 2019). It also has capability to restore the gut health through increase in number of beneficial microorganisms like Bifidobacteriaceae and decreasing the harmful ones like Streptococcus, Clostridium and Enterococcaceae. Although, most studies on inulin are limited to monogastric animals and poultry. Effect of inulin supplementation and mechanism of action in adult ruminants is still less known. Rumen is an anaerobic, bacteria-rich organ that provides energy to the body mainly through microbial fermentation. Goats being the preferred source of meat next to poultry are raised under extensive, semi-intensive and intensive production system. Under extensive and semi-intensive system, animals have an easy access to feed and fodders, and thus rely less on concentrate supply to meet their nutrient demands. However, in commercial livestock production, the animals are kept under stall-fed conditions and have reduced access to roughage-based diet (feed and fodders) and therefore fed with concentrate rich diet to achieve faster growth. Inulin as prebiotics in diet of animals having greater and lesser proportion of concentrate may bring the usefulness of inulin in goat production. Prebiotics specifically inulin has potential to address these issues and capable to bring out the desired effects on animal performances. The addition of prebiotics in the diets of animals is a relatively recent endeavour and preliminary studies are very encouraging. Therefore, the present study was conceived to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of inulin on growth performance, body condition score, faecal score and nutrient digestibility in growing Barbari goats fed high and low-concentrate diet. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ethical approval: The procedures and protocols of this experiment were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee, SVPUAT, Meerut, and CPCSEA-DADF (Approval Number: V-11011(13)/06/2020), Government of India. Animals, experiment design, and feeding: For a period of 90 days, 24 yearling female Barbari goats of uniform age and conformation were selected and divided into 67