ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to evaluate the carcass and serum biochemical characteristics of West African dwarf (WAD) goats fed complete pelleted rations treated with graded levels of a fibrolytic enzyme, Habio amylase. Twenty-four (24) WAD goats with a mean initial body weight of 7.02±0.23kg were procured and randomly assigned to four dietary treatments (T1, T2, T3 and T4). The treatment were similar in composition of feed ingredients except for enzyme levels that were graded as 0.0, 0.15, 0.25 and 0.35 g/kgDM for T1 –T4 respectively. The experimental design was a completely randomized design, and lasted for 90 days after an initial quarantine period of 21 days. Data were collected on carcass characteristics and serum biochemical parameters of the goats. The results showed significant (P<0.05) differences in dressing percentage (T4 highest with 52.15%) and bone to meat ratio (T3 lowest with 0.181). The weights of the meat cuts expressed as percentage of warm carcass weight were not significantly (P>0.05) different across treatments except for shoulder weight that had T4 significantly (P<0.05) higher values than the other treatments. The weights of edible offal and organs expressed as percentages of the empty body weights, did not differ significantly (P>0.05) among treatments, and were within normal proportions. The serum biochemical parameters also showed no significant (P>0.0) differences across treatments. The study concluded that treatment of goat rations with an exogenous fibrolytic enzyme (an amylase) can improve dressing percentage and reduced bone to meat ratio without adverse effects on serum biochemical parameters of WAD goats.