Studies on Egg Shell Meal as Mineral Source for West African Dwarf Goats

Aims: The studies on eggshell meal (ESM) as mineral source for West African Dwarf (WAD) goats was carried out the determine the effects of non-conventional mineral source on WAD goats.

Study design: The goats were randomly allotted to 4 dietary treatments, having five replicates with goats on T1 receiving the control diet (0%) while those on T2, T3 and T4 received 0.5%, 1.00% and 1.50% levels of ESM inclusion, respectively in aa completely randomized design (CRD).

Place and duration of study: The experiment was carried out at the Department of Animal Production, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria, between August and September, 2015.

Methodology: Twenty (20) WAD goats with an average body weight of 5.84kg were used for this experiment. Eggshell was obtained from food vendors (mashayi), and sterilized with hot water without removing the shell membranes. It was then sun- dried and milled. The forage (Northern gamba grass) were harvested fresh and allowed to wilt before feeding it to the goats. Parameters such as performance, haematology and serum biochemistry were assessed.

Results: Apart from the mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) which was significantly affected (P<0.05) by the inclusion of ESM, none of the other haematological, performance and serum biochemical parameters were significantly affected. For MCH, T1 and T2 were significantly higher than T3 and T4.

Conclusion: the study showed that the inclusion of ESM did not adversely affect the performance, haematology and serum biochemistry of WAD goats. The use of ESM is strongly recommended as a source of mineral (especially calcium) for WAD goats. Egg shell meal is cheap and readily available. When it is harnessed in this way, it will not constitute environmental pollution but will rather reduce the cost of livestock feed since it is freely available, unlike bone meal which is expensive because of its high demand.