Pakistan Journal of Nutrition 8 (7): 983-987, 2009 ISSN 1680-5194 © Asian Network for Scientific Information, 2009 983 Nutrient Intake and Digestibility of West African Dwarf Bucks Fed Cassava Peel-Cassava Leaf Meal Based Diets in South Eastern Nigeria A.I. Ukanwoko, F.O. Ahamefule and S.N. Ukachukwu College of Animal Science and Animal Production, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, P.M.B 7267, Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria Abstract: Four West African Dwarf (WAD) bucks averaging 8.0 kg and aged 6-8 months were used to determine the intake and digestibility of cassava peel-cassava leaf meal based diets. The four diets (A, B, C and D) were formulated to contain cassava peel, palm kernel cake, brewers’ dried grain, bone meal, soya bean meal, common salt and 0, 10, 20 and 30% cassava leaf meal respectively. The diets were assigned individually to the four animals in metabolism cages in a 4x4 Latin square design experiment. Feed intake, Dry Matter Intake (DMI), nutrient digestibility and the nitrogen balance status of each animal were measured. The dry matter intake, faecal-N, absorbed-N and N-balance values increased in the goats as the N-intake increased. The apparent N-digestibility did not follow any definite pattern. The faecal-N values differed significantly (p<0.05). These values were 2.53, 3.95, 3.12 and 3.15 g/d for diets A,B,C and D respectively. The digestibility coefficients of DM, CP and EE did not differ significantly (p>0.05) while those of CF, NFE and energy differed significantly (p<0.05) among experimental animal. The Metabolic Faecal Nitrogen (MFN) (g/100 gDM), Endogenous Urinary Nitrogen (EUN) (g/day/Wkg ) and Digestibility Crude Protein (DCP) 0.75 (g/day/Wkg ) values for maintenance were 0.25, 0.1420, 0.89; 0.26, 0.0279, 1.79; 0.32, 0.0232, 1.09 and 0.75 0.30, 0.0301, 2.01 respectively for diets A, B, C and D. All the diets promNoted positive N-balance. The cassava leaf meal fed diets required 1.81 times as much DCP yielded 1.17 times as much MFN and 0.19 times as much EUN as the control animals for maintenance. Key words: Daily feed intake, total nitrogen intake, faecal-N, Retained-N, Apparent-N digestibility and positive nitrogen balance INTRODUCTION Protein inadequacy in the diets of most people in a developing country like Nigeria has been a major concern to animal scientists. The current level of consumption of meat and animal protein is estimated at 8g per caput per day (Ndubuisi, 1992). The average daily consumption of 54 g of protein with 6.5 g from animal sources fall below the recommended daily protein intake of 86 g and 34 g of animal protein (Ejiofor, 1998). The low nitrogen content of dry season fodder usually confer severe nutritional stress on ruminants. The dry season MATERIALS AND METHODS results in a rapid decline in the quantity and quality of Experimental site: The study was conducted in the forages leading to low forage intake and digestibility with research and teaching farm of Michael Okpara university resultant poor animal performances. It has been of Agriculture, Umudike in Abia State of Nigeria on reported (Adegbola, 2002) that poor quality roughages Latitude 05 28 north, Longitude 07 31 East and at an fed to ruminants without supplementation during the dry altitude of 122 m above seal level. It falls within the season caused considerable weight losses and finally rainforest zone of West Africa characterized by long the death of the animal. The prices of conventional duration of rainfall (7-9 months) and short period of dry sources of protein in livestock ration have risen season. Average rainfall is 2169 mm in 148-155 rain exorbitantly (Akinmutimi, 2004) and this has days while average ambient temperature is 26 C with necessitated the search for cheap alternative feed maximum and minimum of 32 C and 22 C respectively. materials that can meet nutritional requirements of farm Relative humidity ranges from 50-95%. animals. Again these alternative feed materials should The cassava peels used for the trials were collected not be in high demands by humans and should be after harvesting the cassava tubers from the processing cheap (Amaefule, 2002). Cassava leaf has high protein unit of the National Root Crop Research Institute, content (16.7-39.90%) (Yousuf et al., 2007) with almost Umudike. The fresh cassava peels were sun-dried on a 85% of the crude protein as true protein (Ravindran, 1991). This is due to the presence of tannins which form tannin-protein complex that bypass the rumen (Wanapat et al., 1997). Cassava peel is also rich in metabolizable energy and very well degraded in the rumen (Smith, 1988). This study is therefore aimed at evaluating the nutrient intake and digestibility of West African Dwarf bucks fed cassava peel-cassava leaf meal based diets. o 1 o 1 o o o