Nutrients intake and digestibility of growing and fattening Uda sheep fed graded levels of ginger in semi-arid Nigeria

Two separate experiments were conducted at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Livestock Teaching and Research Farm to assess intake and digestibility of nutrients for growing and fattening Uda sheep fed graded level of ginger ( Zingiber officinale ) in semi-arid region of Nigeria. In each experiment, fifteen intact male animals with an average weight of 17 and 21.4 kg respectively, were allocated to three treatment diets in a completely randomized Experimental Design (CRD) replicated five times. Experimental diets containing 0 (control), 2.5 g/kg (treatment 2) and 5.0 g/kg (treatment 3) were formulated separately for each experiment. Each experiment lasted for 90 days feeding trial and three weeks digestibility trial. Results indicated that, for growing animals (experiment 1), ginger inclusion has an overall negative effect on nutrients intake and digestibility (P<0.05). However, for fattening animals (experiment 2), intake and digestibility were affected (P<0.05) when ginger inclusion exceeds 2.5%. It was concluded that ginger inclusion had a negative effect on intake and digestibility of growing animals and on fattening animals above 2.5%.