Performance evaluation and haematological biochemical parameters of West African dwarf goats fed pineapple waste (Ananas comosus) with or without yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) supplementation

Abstract

Pineapple waste (PW) is an agro-industrial by-product containing high fibre and can be harnessed by feeding it to ruminant animals to solve their nutritional problems in Nigeria. A study was conducted to assess the nutritive value of Pineapple (PW) as supplementary feed for ruminant animals during the dry season when grasses are either not available or of low quality. Pineapple waste were collected, sundried and then used for the feeding trial at different inclusion levels of 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% with or without yeast supplementation (WOWYS). Twenty four West African dwarf bucks (between 6.5 and 7.5 kg) were assigned to eight dietary treatments with three bucks per treatment and arranged in 2 x 4 factorial layouts in a completely randomized design over a period of 84days. Data were obtained on growth performance and haematological parameters. Results of performance characteristics showed that average concentrate consumed (257.58 g/day), total weight gain (3.23 kg), metabolic weight gain (2.48W0.75) and daily weight gain (35.88 g/day) of experimental animals were significantly higher (p< 0.05) in goats fed 10% inclusion level WOWYS. Pineapple waste inclusion levels WOWYS significantly (p< 0.05) influenced white blood cell count (WBC), lymphocytes, monocytes and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration across the treatments. The monocytes (3.00%) Neutrophil counts (30.00%) were best and significantly higher (p< 0.05) in goats fed 10% PW inclusion level WOWYS while WBC increased significantly (p< 0.05) across the dietary treatments (9.63 – 11.65 x103/mm3) and were within normal levels expected of healthy goats. It is concluded that dietary inclusion of PW with or without yeast supplementation in concentrate diet up to 10% improved the performance characteristics and haematological blood parameters of West African Dwarf goats without any adverse effects.