HAEMATOLOGICAL AND SERUM BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF LAMBS FED RICE STRAW ENSILED WITH UREA AND MOLASSES AT VARYING LEVELS

Résumé

The research was conducted at the livestock teaching and research farm department of animal science, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aliero. Twelve (12) male lambs were purchased from the livestock market in Dodoru market. The animals were balanced for weight for each treatment there after allocated to four treatment diet with four replicate each. The dried Rice Straw was ground into smaller pieces and ensiled with urea and molasses in large quantity. The treatments were A (100Kg feed +4kg molasses +4kg Urea), B (100Kg feed +6kg molasses +4kg Urea) and C (100Kg feed +8kg molasses +4kg Urea) The samples were thoroughly mixed and ensiled for a period of five weeks. The experimental diets were formulated in such a way that the ensiled materials will be included at 60%, while a concentrate diet of 10% maize, 20% cowpea husk, 20% wheat offal, 30% cotton seed cake, 20% groundnut hay and 1% salt will be included in each of the experimental diets. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used in this experiment. The result in table 2 shows that there was no significant different in all the parameters measured. The White Blood Cell (WBC) recorded highest in T2 followed by T3 and the least was in T1 while RBC, PCV and MCH recorded highest in T1 then T2 and lowest in T3. The MCHC, MCV, MCH, are within the reference values, while the PLT, RBC, HGB, PCV are below the reference values.