Nutritional manipulation in goats: Supplementation of high protein concentrate, effect on performance and resilience of internal parasites

Abstract

Eighteen West African Dwarf Goats (WAD) were used in 77-days experimental period to test the efficacy of high protein levels on growth  performance and parasite loads of WAD goat. The goats were grouped into three treatments of six animals each per group using their FAMACHA scores (C3-E5) in a completely randomized design. Concentrate diets of varying levels of protein were fed at 7.5 % (low protein, LP), 10.5 % (medium protein, MP) and 14.5% (high protein, HP) inclusion level, respectively while Megathyrsus maximums and water was providedad libitum. Data were collect on FAMACHA score, weight changes. oocyst count and egg per gram of the faeces. The result of this study indicated that the supplemented protein decreased the FAMACHA score from the onset of the experiment to the end of the experiment. Animals fed high protein diet displayed  highest growth performance, followed by animals fed with medium protein diet while animals fed with low protein diets had a slight increase in their growth performance. Goats fed high proteinous diet (HP) had a reduced oocyst and egg per gram of the faeces compared to their counterparts  fed medium and low protein diets. It can be concluded that feeding WAD goats up to 14% crude protein inclusion is quite adequate to cover their protein requirements and increase their growth performance.Feeding high proteinous diets to goats is an economic and cost effective  way of controlling gastrointestinal parasite.

Keywords: Goats, growth performance, parasites and high protein