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Abstract

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of feeding different levels of Azolla pinnata, Polyalthia longifolia, Tithonia diversifolia, Moringa olifera, Azadirachta indica leaf meal infusion (PMNWA) as an organic supplement on the performance and nutrient retention of growing grass cutters. Experimental parameters covered growth performance and nutrient retention. Twenty, three weeks growing male grass cutters were randomly divided into five treatments groups with four replicates, each of one grass cutter in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Group 1 was fed basal diet without PMNWA, Group 2, 3, 4 and 5 were fed basal diets supplemented with PMNWA at levels of 5.00%, 10.0%, 15.0% and 20.0% respectively. The basal diet was formulated to meet the nutritional requirements of growing grass cutters according to Wogar (2011), the experiment lasted for 60 days and the results obtained showed that there were significant at P<0.05 differences among all treatments in the values of final live weight and feed conversion ratio . Results for feed intake, daily water intake and nutrient retention (protein, fibre and fat) were not significantly (P>0.05) affected with the inclusion of PMNWA. No mortality was recorded throughout the experimental period. Results obtained from this study showed that PMNWA is a good quality test materials with high contents of micro-nutrients which can improve the stability, palatability and shelf life of feed and its inclusion at 20.0% level does not have any deleterious effect on the general performance and health status of grass cutters.