Evaluation of nutritive value of aspilia africana: preliminary studies

Abstract

Digestibility trials were conducted by total collection method on Aspilia africana hay as complete feed for castrated goats. The goats had average weight of 22.5±0.58 kg and age of 18.0±0.57 months, respectively. The prepared Aspilia africana hay had a chemical composition of 10.56% crude protein, 28.3% acid detergent fibre, 31.8% neutral detergent fibre, and digestible energy of 3.45 kcal/g DM. The digestibility coefficients for feed dry matter, crude protein, acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre, and gross energy were 62.5±4.7, 78.85±4.59, 59.44±2.17, 63.3±1.44, and 66.47±2.54, respectively. The implications of these finding with regard to small ruminant production in West Africa are discussed