Haematologic and biochemical profile of grazing Boer-goats supplemented with cowpea seed hulls and commercial concentrate.

Abstract

The objective of the study was to investigate the haematological and biochemical indices of grazing/browsing Boer-goats before and after supplemented with either cowpea seed hulls or commercial concentrate. Weanling Boer-goats (n=36) were assigned 3 treatments comprising of 4 animals each replicated three times in a completely randomized design (CRD) matrix. There were no variations (p>0.05) in mean values of haematological parameters of the supplemented and non-supplemented goats except for mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV). Both values increased significantly (p<0.05). For clinical chemistry analysis, the goats fed different diet treatments had elevated creatinine and total plasma proteins, but still within the normal range. There was also noticeable subclinical phosphotaemia as goats fed different diets or diet combinations had low phosphorus level at the beginning of the study but slightly increased at the end of the study.