Growth Performance and Feed Intake of Goats Fed Garlic (Allium sativum) Supplemented Diets

Abstract

Two different experiments were conducted using fifteen growing lambs and fifteen fattening goats of Barbari breed with average weight of 17.4 and 21.1 kg and age of between 12 and 20 months respectively to evaluate supplemented garlic levels on performance of the animals. In each experiment, the animals were randomly assigned to three treatment diets containing graded garlic levels in a completely randomized experimental design replicated five times. Garlic was supplemented at graded levels of 30gm and 60gm for treatments T2 and T3 respectively while treatment T1 (control) had no garlic. Results indicated a significantly lower body weight gain for growing animals (experiment 1) fed diets containing garlic (P<0.05) while feed conversion ratio (FCR) and cost of feed/ kg live weight gain was higher. For fattening animals (experiment 2), garlic inclusion above 30gm had a negative effect on fattening performance (P < 0.05). It was concluded that inclusion of garlic in the diet of growing and fattening Barbari goat could not improve performance.