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Effect of level of
substitution of sweet potato (Ipomoea Batatas. L)
vines for concentrate on body weight gain and carcass
characteristics of browsing Arsi-Bale goats
Tesfaye Kebede*, Tesfaye Lemma,
Estifanos Tadesse and Mieso Guru
Adami Tulu
Agricultural Research Center, P.O. Box 35, Zeway, Ethiopia.
*Corresponding
author. E-mail:
tekebede@yahoo.com.
Accepted 7
February 2008
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The study was conducted for 132 days on forty growing Arsi-Bale male
goats of 16.78±0.61kg initial body weight to evaluate the
use of fresh sweet potato vines (SPV) and concentrate given
as sole or mixtures and also to determine the optimum level
of substitution. Browsing goats were supplemented with SPV
and concentrate, which was gradually replaced with fresh
sweet potato vines at five levels: 0% SPV (T1), 25% SPV
(T2), 50% SPV (T3), 75% SPV (T4) and 100% SPV (T5). There
were no significant differences between T1, T2 and T3 in
average daily gain (ADG). T1, T2 and T3 had significantly
(P<0.05) higher ADG (g) (60.13 ± 0.004, 59.52 ± 0.002 and
56.34 ± 0.003 vs. 33.01 ± 0.003 and 20.83 ± 0.001) than T4
and T5, respectively. T5 had significantly (P<0.05) lower
ADG (20.83 ± 0.001 g) than other treatments. There were no
significant differences among treatments in carcass traits
except in fat thickness (mm) which was highest (P<0.05) for
T1 (1.67 ± 0.33) followed by T3 (1.33 ± 0.33), T2 (1.17 ±
0.44), T4 (1.17 ± 0.17) and lowest for T5 (1.23 ± 0.15). In
general, there was no significant difference among
treatments in primal cut (kg) except for T5 which had lowest
(P<0.05) leg, loin and shoulder and neck than
T1. Similarly, there were no significant differences
among T1, T2 and T3 in
muscle, fat and bone tissue. Therefore, from this study it
can be concluded that 25 and 50% sweet potato vines
substitution for concentrate can be used for growing Arsi-Bale
male goats finishing with acceptable weight gain, carcass
traits and compositions.
Key words:
Arsi-Bale goats, carcass characteristics, sweet potato
vines, weight gain.
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