Poultry manure as a protein supplement in indigenous goat production in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The abundance of poultry litter in most farms in the sub-Saharan Africa is becoming an environmental problem. The objective of this study is to evaluate the proximate value, in-vitro digestibility of dried poultry manure (DPM) and its subsequent effect on growth, pH, and volatile fatty acid production of indigenous goats in Zimbabwe. Eighteen goats were randomly allocated to two treatment diets: grazing veld grass plus ad libitum browsing of Luecaena leucocephala (T1) and 25% dry poultry manure plus 75% maize meal (MM) (T2), in a completely randomised design. Three samples of 2 g each T 1 and T 2 diets were subjected to standard procedures, for proximate analysis; a two stage Tilley and Terry was used to evaluate dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) digestibility of the diets. The results show no significant differences between treatment diets for DM, ether extract (EE) and Ash; however T 1 had higher (P<0.05) CP, ADF and CF compared to T 2. The NDF content of T 2 was significantly higher (P<0.05) than T 1. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) in DM and OM digestibility between treatments; T 1 showed higher DM and OM digestibility compared to T 2. Diet and sex of animals significantly (P< 0.05) influenced DMI, ADG and total gain (TG). Male animals in the control diet consumed more feed, gained more per day and showed the highest growth rate compared to female animals (P<0.05). The rumen liquor pH for animals in T 1 was significantly higher (P<0.05) compared to T 2; however the sex of animal did not influence overall pH of rumen liquor (P>0.05). Diet and sex of animals significantly influenced (P<0.05) the total VFA production. Male animals in T 2 exhibited the highest (P<0.05) total VFAs. In conclusion, although there were some nutrient inadequacies (ash, ADF) in poultry manure feed, it can support goat production at a marginal scale and positively influence pH and VFA production.

Performance and Haematological Indices of Balami Rams Fed Cattle Urine-Ensiled Sorghum Stover as Source of Non-Protein Nitrogen

“…Alternative nonconventional sources such as poultry manure have been used as NPN sources for ruminants (Trujillo et al, 2014 andJamee et al, 2019). Poultry manure has been the most popular nonconventional NPN source used in ruminants feeding and as silage additive (Washaya et al, 2018 andACES, 2020). An assay of its chemical composition revealed that poultry manure contains 15 -38% crude protein, 11 -52% crude fibre, 0.81 -6.13% Calcium, 0.56 -3.92% Phosphorus and 0.73 -5.17% Potassium (Lanyasunya et al, 2006;Ravindran et al, 2017).…”