HAEMATOLOGICAL RESPONSE AND RUMEN METABOLITES OF GROWING YANKASA RAMS FED UREA TREATED AND ENSILED MILLET STOVER BASED DIETS WITH SUPPLEMENTS

A 90 days feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding ensiled urea treated millet
stover based diets with supplementation on haematological profiles and volatile fatty acids using
30 growing Yankasa rams of mean initial weights of between 16.5-18.21kg. The rams were allotted
to six treatments consisting five animals per treatment, with each unit taken as a replicate in a
Completely Randomized Design. Four (4) kg urea was dissolved in 100 litres of water and
sprinkled on 100 kg of crushed millet stover and then ensiled for 21 days was used as basal diet.
A concentrate diet consisting of 300 g of cottonseed cake (diet 1), Faidherbia albida meal, (diet
2), cottonseed cake and maize offal (diet 3), F. albida and maize offal (diet 4), CSC and wheat
offal (diet 5) and F. albida and wheat offal (diet 6) were all fed to each ram at 150g twice daily.
Blood samples were collected and analysed for haematological profiles. Fifty (50 mls) of rumen
liquor was withdrawn from 3 Yankasa rams of each diet to determine pH and short chain fatty
acids. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed on haemoglobin (8.07-10.40g/dl) before
feeding and (6.80-10.80g/dl) 4hrs after feeding, packed cell volume (13.83-18.80%) before feeding
and (14.10-22.60%) 4hrs after feeding, mean corpuscular haemoglobin (16.79-20.12pg) before
feeding and (11.89-18.85pg) 4hrs after feeding and white blood cells (4.70-6.90×10
9
/L) before
feeding and (3.10-6.90×10
9
/L) 4hrs after feeding. On the other hand, values of pH in the rumen
liquor ranged from 5.40-9.10 before feeding, 6.20-9.30 three hours after feeding and 5.20-8.40 five
hours after feeding. While for total short chain fatty acids ranged from 33.00-44.03 before feeding,
33.13-50.00 three hours after feeding and 35.43-49.30 after feeding respectively. Rams fed with
Faidherbia albida and maize offal at 50:50 percent has better pH 5.20 to 9.10 before and after
feeding, total volatile fatty acids 36.60 to 50.00 before and after feeding, as well as better
haematological indices like haemoglobin concentration 5.05 to 5.73 all before and after feeding the
diets, as such could be recommended for use as supplement diet in growing Yankasa rams