Effect of Mid-Term Dietary Administration of the Caesalpinia coriaria Extract on the Sustainable Mitigation of Equine Fecal Methane, Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen Sulfide Production.

This study aimed to evaluate the dietary administration of the Caesalpinia coriaria (CC) extract for 30 days on in vitro fecal greenhouse gases production. Fecal samples, as inoculums, were collected from horses given daily 0- (Fecal 0), 60- (Fecal 60) and 120- (Fecal 60) mL CC aqueous extract per animal. The extract dose was mixed with the morning feeding diet at 6:00 h for each horse. During incubation, 0-, 0.6-, 1.2- and 1.8-mL CC extracts were added to the basal diet which was fed to horses (as subtract) and evaluated with each fecal type. Feces from the horses given no CC extract produced the lowest (P = .0014) methane while the fecal from horses given CC produced more methane . It was also observed that all CC doses linearly (P = .0457) produced more methane than the control. Furthermore, Fecal 0 was more efficient and produced less methane for every unit of metabolizable energy, organic matter, and short chain fatty acids while Fecal 60 was the least efficient. Production of H2S showed that feces of equine orally give 60 mL/day CC produced the highest while Fecal 0 and Fecal 120 were similar. Fecal type x dose showed that 0 mL/g DM produced the highest H2S while 1.8 mL/g DM produced the lowest. Thus, based on gas production, H2S, CO and CH4, feeding horses with 60 mL/day of CC with or without 0.6 mL/g DM of CC extract is recommended for the sustainable mitigation of greenhouse gases emission in horses.

Impact of varied time of feeding on the lactation and growth performance of West African Dwarf goat.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of time of feeding on production performance of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats. Two experiments involving twenty-seven goats (15 bucks and 12 gravid does) were conducted. In Experiment I, the bucks were randomly allocated into three treatments of five replicates and fed for 115 days. In experiment II, pregnant goat-does were randomly allocated into three experimental treatments of four replicates per treatment  1 month to kidding. Goats were either fed in the morning (06:00 h), afternoon (12:00 h), or evening (18:00 h) respectively under natural light cycles. In experiment I, dry matter intake, weight gain, carcass characteristic, and meat chemical composition were not affected (P > 0.05) by time of feeding. In experiment II, data collection on feed intake, feed efficiency (FE), and milk yield spanned 6 weeks and were analyzed. From the results, milk yield in morning-fed goat-does was higher than evening-fed does while afternoon-fed does have the lowest yield at P < 0.001. Energy corrected milk in evening-fed does was higher (P = 0.006) than other treatments. Feed efficiency for milk yield and energy corrected milk yield (P < 0.001) in evening-fed does were higher than morning and afternoon-fed does. Milk component yield (g/day) for lactose (P = 0.002) was the highest in morning-fed does; evening-fed does had the highest (P = 0.001) crude fat while afternoon-fed does had the lowest yield for all milk component parameters. Conclusively, feeding in the morning and evening is recommended for milk production and component yield per day. However, for improved energy corrected milk yield and feed efficiency in lactating goats, feeding in the evening is recommended. It is recommended that further studies should be conducted on improving milk productivity in evening-fed goats due to the advantage it had over other feeding regimes. Thus, altering time of feeding could be a suitable alternative feeding strategy in a changing climate with a potential to improve production efficiency, especially in the tropics.

Local knowledge and socio-economic determinants of traditional medicines' utilization in livestock health management in Southwest Nigeria.

Smallholder livestock farmers in Nigeria utilize traditional medicines derived from medicinal plants (PMs) for the maintenance of their animals' health. This study was designed to determine the PMs used in the study area and their level of utilization by livestock farmers, compare the level of utilization of PMs across the three states surveyed and identify the socio-economic factors influencing farmer's utilization of PMs. Thirty-five PMs were identified. Farmers had considerable knowledge about the identified PMs but about 80.0% of them used the PMs to poor/moderate extent. There were statistical differences in the utilization level of PMs among the three states. Six socio-economic variables were found to be statistically significant in influencing PMs' utilization. Farmer's age, household size, distance to the nearest veterinary hospital/clinic and extent of travels, had positive effects while negative effects were exhibited by farm income and number of heads of livestock. It was concluded that there was considerable knowledge about PMs and that utilization of PMs varied between the three states. It was recommended that local knowledge of PMs be preserved in the study area through screening and documentation.