Essen Paulinus Ogbonnaya, Njoku Godwin Nnamdi, Onya Godswill Uzoma, Zachary Blessing Ngozi, Donkoh Dondo Stephen, Kuka Timothy Tartenger, Adjei-Mensah Benjamin
Regional Centre of Excellence in Avian Science, University of Lome, Lome, Togo.
Department of Animal Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
Vet Med Sci. 2025 Sep;11(5):e70581. doi: 10.1002/vms3.70581.
Nigerian ruminant farmers face poor animal nutrition during dry seasons, affecting productivity.
A 90-day study evaluated the effect of oil palm leaf meal (OPLM) supplementation on the performance of West African Dwarf (WAD) weaner sheep.
Fifteen WAD sheep aged 4-5 months were randomly assigned to three dietary treatments in a completely randomised design. Diets were supplemented with 0%, 10% and 20% inclusion levels of OPLM. At the end of the study, feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), haematology and carcass characteristics were determined. Two millilitres of blood samples were collected from three sheep per treatment with a syringe and needle from the jugular vein into bottles containing ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) for haematology analysis. Three sheep per treatment were randomly selected, starved of feed for 12 h, slaughtered and the carcass was cut into parts and weighed using a sensitive scale. The weights of internal organs were expressed as a percentage of the live weight.
The results showed that feed intake was significantly higher in the 20% OPLM diet and lower in the 10% OPLM diet and had the best FCR and average daily body weight gain of 11.36 and 80.37 g, respectively. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed among the groups on haematology and carcass characteristics.
Therefore, OPLM can be included in the sheep diet up to 10% without compromising performance.
尼日利亚反刍动物养殖户在旱季面临动物营养不足的问题，这影响了生产力。
一项为期90天的研究评估了添加油棕榈叶粉（OPLM）对西非矮种（WAD）断奶羔羊生产性能的影响。
将15只4 - 5月龄的WAD绵羊随机分为三组，采用完全随机设计进行三种日粮处理。日粮分别添加0%、10%和20%的OPLM。研究结束时，测定采食量、体重增加、饲料转化率（FCR）、血液学指标和胴体特征。每个处理组用注射器和针头从三只绵羊的颈静脉采集2毫升血液样本，注入含有乙二胺四乙酸（EDTA）的瓶中用于血液学分析。每个处理组随机选择三只绵羊，禁食12小时后屠宰，将胴体分割成部分，用灵敏秤称重。内脏重量以活体重的百分比表示。
结果表明，20% OPLM日粮组的采食量显著更高，10% OPLM日粮组的采食量更低，其FCR最佳，平均日体重增加分别为11.36克和80.37克。各组在血液学指标和胴体特征方面存在显著差异（p < 0.05）。
因此，OPLM可在不影响生产性能的情况下，以高达10%的比例添加到绵羊日粮中。
