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GROWTH AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF CANE RATS FED DIASTIC-MICROBES DEGRADED SAWDUST: SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Abstract
The experiment analysed weight gain, feed conversion efficiency and economic benefit of Cane rats. Thirty weaned Cane rats, about 3 months of age were obtained from Benin Republic by a contracted agent and quarantined for 21 days, from where 20 Cane rats were selected for the study, and fed diastic microbes degraded sawdust (DMDS) based diets. Experimental design used was Complete Randomized Design with 5 Diet groups replicated 4 times per diet group. The DMDS included as follows: Diet 1 (0% DMDS); Diet 2 (5% DMDS); Diet 3 (10% DMDS); Diet 4 (15% DMDS) and Diet 5 (20% DMDS) that replaced cassava meal in the diets. The trial lasted for 60 days, where result showed no significance (p>0.05) in the initial weight, while the average daily weight gain, average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio differed significantly (p<0.01, p<0.05) in all the treatments in favor of the DMDS fed Cane rats. Base on the economic benefits measured, there were significant (p<0.05) effect in the cost/kg weight gain, cost of feed consumed, cost of production, gross revenue and revenue, while the cost differential and relative cost benefit were also significant (p<0.01). These findings could be as a result of the inclusion of DMDS as component of formulated feed in Cane rats’ diets, which might have added some unknown active benefiting factors that caused the increased performance noted in this study. The result of this study has showed that DMDS can be utilized by Cane rats up to 20% in diet.