ABSTRACT This experiment was conducted to determine the best time to introduce finisher diets in the humid tropics. Four treatments (3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th week) were tried in this study that lasted for 9 weeks. A total of one hundred and eighty birds were used for the experiment. The birds were randomly assigned into 4 treatments that were replicated three times with 15 birds in each replicate. The following were measured, growth performance, carcass quality and cost benefit analysis....
ABSTRACT Grevy’s zebra (Equus grevyi), the world’s largest wild equine, is endemic to the arid Horn of Africa. Originally, its range extended throughout the Horn of Africa but currently it is found only in Kenya and Ethiopia. The population has declined from 15,000 in the late 1970s to between 1,964 and 2,445 animals by the year 2008. The population declines as report by William and Low (2004) is probably as a result of being killed for meat, medicinal purposes, loss of access to critical...
ABSTRACT The effect of forage to concentrate ratios on the peiformance of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats was studied at the Livestock Unit of the Federal University of Agriculture, Umudike for 56 days to determine the optimum combination of forage to concentrate ratio that best support the growth of goat. Twelve WAD goats comprising eight castrated bucks and four does aged between 4 -6 months and weighing between 4.0kg to 8.0kg with an average weight of 6.17kg were used for the study. T...
ABSTRACT A lot of effort is put on 'proximate' threats to conservation, overlooking the 'ultimate' conservation goals in the process. Ultimately, attempts need to be made to conserve not just individuals or populations, but processes that have been on-going over vast geographical space and long evolutionary time, such as gene flow and natural selection. So far, little is known about these historical processes that decisions affecting the management of species in fragmented landscapes are alw...
ABSTRACT Mayfly order (Ephemeroptera) is a widely distributed taxon that is used commonly in the biological assessment of water quality due to its sensitivity to changes in water quality. Despite its values in water quality assessment, studies on the taxa are still very scanty in most tropical countries, including Kenya. Water quality deterioration remains a vital threat in most rivers. The primary objective of this study, was therefore to investigate the spatial and temporal changes in commu...
ABSTRACT The main objective of this study was to establish reference protein composition values for selected local feedstuffs such as dry brewers spent grain (DBSG), cassava meal (CAM), palm kernel cake (PKC) and groundnut cake (GNC) for the Nigerian feed industry by determining amino acids profiles and amino acids compositional quality scores. The selected local feedstuffs were each sourced from five locations from northern and southern parts of Nigeria such that there were five samples for...
ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary selenium (se) supplementation on the reproductive performance of sows, preweaning growth performance of their piglets, haematological and antioxidant status of pigs. Twelve (12) crossbred sows (Landrace × Large White) aged 1-2 years with an average body weight (BW) of 56.1 ± 5kg were randomly allotted to four treatment groups of three sows per treatment in a completely randomised design (CRD). The treatment groups compr...
ABSTRACT A 35-day experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design to determine the efficacy of two phytogenic feed additives as veritable alternatives to antibiotics using 320 dayold unsexed commercial Ross 308 broiler chicks. The chicks were randomly divided into four groups of 80 birds each and assigned to four isocaloric (12.60, 13.2 and 13.4 MJ/Kg AMEn) and isonitrogenous (25.0, 22.5 and 20.07 % CP levels) diets designated as follows: diet 1- maizesoybean based diet without ...
ABSTRACT This study which lasted for 52 weeks investigated the effects of dietary Vitamin C (Lascorbic acid) and Vitamin E (dl- alpha tocopheryl acetate) on the performance of laying hens in the humid tropics. A total of 240 twenty-four week old Golden Neslink pullets were randomly selected from a flock of 550 birds and randomly divided into sixteen treatments of 15 pullets. The birds were initially vent examined to ensure that they were at point of lay before commencing the study. Each...
ABSTRACT There is potential in Kenya to utilize forage sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L) Lam) cultivars as livestock feed. There are many cultivars of forage sweet potato in Kenya whose feeding values have not been evaluated. The objectives of the current study were: 1) evaluate forage sweet potato cultivars for crude protein (CP) yield and digestibility at different harvesting ages, 2) evaluate their conservation potential as silage or hay and 3) determine sheep growth performance and goat ...
ABSTRACT Mastitis in dairy goats was investigated with the objective of establishing the effect of management and the identification of the key causative agents through common diagnostic procedures of somatic cell counts, bacteriological identification and, for the first time in goat mastitis, by use of Polymerase Chain Reaction. A cross-sectional survey, using a structured questionnaire was conducted in three agro-climatic regions of Coast, Nyanza and Rift Valley, with goat keeping clusters...
ABSTRACT Washed, sliced and oven-dried whole sweet potato tubers (Iponwea batatas) of the local variety wcre milled and supplemented with a mineral salts solution containing (g litre) glucose, 5; (NH4)2SO4 1.5; KH2PO4, 1.5; MgS04 0.05; Yeast extract, 0.05 and fermented at 30C for 72 hr by solid siate fermentation (SSF) using Neurospora sitophila, Aspergillus niger, Candida ulilis and Saccharomyces warum. i tbe end of the fermentation period A.niger gave the highest protein content of 11.8%, D...
Abstract Onifade, A.A. and Abu, O.A. 1998. Productive response of rabbits to supplemental copper in a diet based on tropical feedstuffs. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 13: 129-135. Effects of supplemental copper in a diet based on tropical feedstuffs on productive performance, carcass measurements and haematology of rabbits were investigated in a 70d trial. Copper as CuS04.0H2O was supplemented at 0, 125, 250 and 375 mg kg1 into a basal diet. The basal diet served as control treatment. Eight rabbits, e...
ABSTRACT The breeding biology of Macaroni Penguins and of Rockhopper Penguins was studied at Marion Island (46°54'8, 37°45'E) in the austral summers of 1974-75 and 1976-77. The clutch comprises two eggs, the first-laid (A-) egg being markedly smaller than the second-laid (B-) egg. Components of B-eggs are heavier than the same components of A-eggs. Incubation begins after the B-egg is laid. Incubation of B-eggs lasts 34 and 36 days in Rockhopper and Macaroni Penguins respectively. Paren...
ABSTRACT Character variation in Chaetobromus, a genus of palatable grasses endemic to the arid western areas of southern Africa, was used to derive a classification reflecting taxonomic and ecological pattern. The present study differs from earlier biosystematic investigations by its much more intensive approach to sampling, with 75 anatomical, morphological and cytological characters and 169 individual samples being used. The use of larger population samples permitted quantification o~ vari...