Influence of dietary supplementation of Piliostigma reticulatum pods with or without charcoal on growth performance, hematology, and carcass traits in goats fed a concentrate-based diet

This study evaluated the growth performance, hematology and carcass attributes of goats fed diet supplemented with Piliostigma reticulatum pod meal (PRPM). Nine Red Sokoto bucks (BW, 12.5kg, 5 months old) were randomly assigned to three isocaloric and isonitrogenious diets namely; a basal diet without PRPM (Control), diet supplemented with 20% PRPM, and diet supplemented with 20% PRPM and 0.03% charcoal in a completely randomized design. The goats were fed for 60 d, and slaughtered. Diet had no effect ( p >0.05) on dry matter intake, body weight gain and feed efficiency in goats. The control goats had lower ( p 0.05) among the treatments. These results suggest that PRPM could be utilized in diets without compromising growth performance, hematological indices, and carcass traits in goats. Keywords: dressing percentage, feed efficiency, packed cell volume, prime cuts, red blood cell