Growth-promoting effect of water-washed neem ( Azadirachta indica A. Juss) fruit inclusion in West African dwarf rams
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Growth-promoting effect of water-washed neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) fruit inclusion in West African dwarf rams Akaninyene A. Jack 1 & Michael K. Adewumi 1 & Moyosore J. Adegbeye 2 & Daniel E. Ekanem 1 & Abdelfattah Z. M. Salem 3 & Tolulope O. Faniyi 1 Received: 6 February 2020 / Accepted: 10 September 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract In a study to determine the growth-promoting effect of water-washed neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) fruit (WN) in West African Dwarf (WAD) rams, a total mixed ration was formulated with 0 (WN0), 2.5 (WN2.5), 5.0 (WN5), 7.5 (WN7.5), and 10.0 (WN10) % of WN inclusion. Twenty-five yearling rams (12.3 ± 2.0 kg) were assigned to one of the five dietary groups with five animals per group in a completely randomized design. Each group received the diet for 90 days inclusive of the initial 28 days used for anticoccidial efficacy trial. After the growth trial, three rams from each group were used for digestibility and nitrogen metabolism trial. Anticoccidial efficacy linearly increased (P = 0.002) with increased inclusion of WN and duration of feeding (P = 0.003). Feed intake (P = 0.018) and weight gain (P = 0.009) quadratically increased with WN5 inclusion compared to WN10. Optimal inclusion level of WN for daily weight gain was 5.1% (R2 = 0.30). Digestibility of crude protein was linearly and quadratically increased (P = 0.032; P = 0.031, respectively) with up to WN7.5 inclusion. Nitrogen retention was similar among the treatments. Incorporation of water-washed neem fruit in the diets of West African dwarf rams improved nutrient utilization and animal health by increasing anticoccidial efficacy, feed intake, and weight gain. This is an indication that waterwashed neem fruit could be used as growth promoter in sheep production. Keywords Anticoccidial efficacy . Growth promoter . Microbial yield . Neem fruit . WAD sheep
Introduction Sheep has the potential to significantly contribute to meeting animal protein demand. Growing human population and urbanization could lead to increased demand for substantial amount of feed resources needed to improve ruminant growth and production (Behan et al. 2019). The increasing global livestock production and animal population with limiting livestock feed resources (Tona 2018) portends great danger in the nearest future. In addition, poor feed utilization as a result of * Abdelfattah Z. M. Salem [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Department of Animal Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
2
Department of Animal Production and Health, Federal University of Technology Akure, Akure, Nigeria
3
Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma del Estado México, Toluca, Estado de México, Mexico
inefficient rumen fermentation is one of the challenges of ruminant nutrition in the tropics. The available feed resources are characterized by low proportion of protein and minerals and high lignocellulolytic forages especially during the dry season (Addas et al. 2011). The shortfall in feed resource and
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