Napier Grass Rumen Degradability in Sacco in Goats (<i>Capra hircus aegagrus</i>) Supplemented with Different Sources and Amount of Dietary Fats

The study aimed to explore the potential of dietary fats supplementation on the overall goat performance. Three (3) mature rumen-cannulated goats weighting 27.33 ± 1.53 kg housed in individual elevated metabolism stalls with customized fecal and urine collection tools with treatments replicated three times over time following the Complete Randomized Design (CRD). Animals were randomly selected on different dietary treatment at different cycle. For each cycle, animals were provided with 30% concentrate on the morning based on feed requirements {3% of their body weight (BW) dry matter (DM) basis} of the animals. Ad libitum feeding of Napier grass will follow thereafter. Clean drinking water were made available all the times in the respective animal watering troughs. The rumen-cannulated goats were supplemented with different levels of two dietary fats (VCO and Lard) with dietary treatment combinations as follows, Control and VCO and Lard at 3% & 5%. Degradability of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were collected sequentially in every cycle of the study. There were seven (7) days lag period in every cycle for the animals to return to each natural state. On the 8th day of every cycle, animals were given different dietary treatment. Sequential insertion of nylon bag was done on the 15th to 16th day (7 days after treatment). The results showed that degradability of the dry matter (DM) was noticed degraded exponentially on the first twelve hours of incubation and slower down in the next few hours until 48 hours. Crude protein, acid and neutral detergent fiber showed breakdown of components was observed in the first 48 hours of incubation. No significant difference (P > 0.05) among treatment means was observed in all parameters gathered. This implies that mature female goat diet cannot be influenced by dietary fats from two different sources (VCO and Lard) at 3% to 5% supplementation. Based on the study conducted, dietary fats supplementation on goats such as VCO and lard given at the maximum level of 5% level did not influence the nutrient degradability of Napier grass in the rumen until it reaches at 48 hours of incubation. Supplementing ruminant diets with dietary fat in goats could increase the energy density of the animal’s diet without adverse effect on rumen degradability. This simple, easy, and basic technique could also be applied to other animal species in pursuit of finding ways to formulate indigenous feedstuff materials that have potential nutritive values. Given the limitations such as the climatic and environmental constraints, this particular study would somehow serve as benchmark in conducting related researches in optimizing the conditions with respect to animal nutrition and feedstuff utilization. Thus, this study was done to augment productivity and to provide new opportunities for achieving enhanced growth performance in a way that alleviates poverty, improves food security and nutrition and promotes sustainable use of natural resources.