ABSTRACT

 The study was undertaken to determine the nutrient intake and digestibility of graded dietary levels of dried cassava peel meal as replacement for maize offal fed to West African Dwarf (WAD) goats. Four (4) WAD bucks aged 1-2 years and with mean initial body weight of 16kg. Four diets were formulated to contain 0, 60 ,80 and 100 % cassava peel meal (CPM) designated Ti, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. Each of the animals received one of the four (4) treatment diets in 4 x 4 Latin Square design. The data· obtained from this study were subjected to Analysis of variance (ANOV A) applicable to a 4 x 4 Latin Square experiment. The results showed that significant differences (P<0.05) existed in crude protein, ash, crude fiber, ether extract and metabolizable energy (ME), whereas no significant difference (P>0.05) was observed in dry matter and nitrogen - free extract (NFE). The control diet had significantly (p<0.05) higher crude protein (CP), ash, ether extract (EE) and metabolizable energy than the other treatments except for crude fiber of T4 and ME of T,. Ta group had the highest (P<0.05) crude fiber. The dry matter intake as percentage body weight was significantly (P<0.05) higher in T; among the treatments with T; recording the lowest value .Diets T;, T; and T; had similar (P>0.05) N-intake (g/d/Wg' N- absorbed (g/d!Wkg 0 · 75 ) and apparent nitrogen digestibility values. T 2 recorded significantly higher (P<0.05) urinary-Nitrogen (g/d) and urinary- N (g/a/wg®) than the other treatment diets whereas the control (T 1) exhibited the lowest (P<0.05) values in these parameters. The values for N- intake (g/d) and urinary- N output (g/d) were 15.53, 0.66., 15.20, 1.54, 9.92, 0.84 and 14.29, 0.98.for T-Ta respectively. The apparent nutrient digestibility coefficients differed significantly (P<0.05) among the diets. The dry matter, crude protein crude fiber, ether extract and nitrogen - free extract were better digested (P<0.05) in the control diet (T;) than in CPM diets. The metabolic feacal nitrogen (MFN) values were similar (P>0.05) in all the diets. The values were 0.061, 0.077, 0.070, and 0.074 (g/l00g DM) for T;, T;, T; and T4 respectively. The values for endogenous urinary nitrogen (EUN) were 0.689, 1.403, 0.880 and 0.956 (g/d/Wkg"") respectively for 1,, T;, T; and T4.The Biological values were 95.46, 89.33, 90.89 and 92.76 for T,, Ty, T; and T; respectively. The diet (T;) containing 60% CPM is recommended among others for feeding goats, as better performance was achieved with respect to nutrient digestibility and utilization.