Effect of Varying Inclusion Levels of Fossil Shell Flour on Growth Performance, Water Intake, Digestibility and N Retention in Dohne-Merino Wethers

• Main Authors: Olusegun O Ikusika, Conference T. Mpendulo, Titus J Zindove, Anthony I Okoh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-08-01
• Series: Animals
• Subjects: Fossil shell flour; growth performance; digestibility; nitrogen utilization; Dohne-Merino
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/9/8/565

This study was carried out to determine the effect of varying levels of Fossil shell flour (FSF) supplementation on growth performance, water intake, digestibility and N retention in Dohne Merino sheep pursuant to establishing the optimum inclusion rate of this supplement in Dohne Merino diets. Sixteen Dohne-Merino wethers (18 ± 1.5 kg body weight) were used in a complete randomized design with four animals per treatment. Sheep were fed a basal diet without FSF addition (control, T1), or with the addition of FSF (2%, T2), (4%, T3) or (6%, T4) of the diet for 105 days. Treatment 3 (4% FSF) has the highest values of dry matter intake, total weight gain, N retention and for most of the apparent digestibility nutrients (CP, EE and Ash) compared to treatment T1, T2 and T4(<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). The urinary and fecal N excretion also significantly decreased in the FSF treated diets compared to the control (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). Water intake values were highest in control and were significantly (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05) different from those in treatments 2 and 4, but not to treatment 3. It is concluded that 4% inclusion rate of FSF will give the best improvement on growth performance, diet digestibility and N retention of Dohne-Merino sheep. Also, the addition of FSF in the diets of sheep is a safe natural additive that can help to reduce environmental pollution by reducing fecal and urinary N excretion.