Nutrient intake, digestibility and performance of Gaddi kids supplemented with tea seed or tea seed saponin extract

Abstract The present study determined the nutrient intake, digestibility, nitrogen balance, microbial protein synthesis, haemato-biochemical attributes, immune response and growth performance of Gaddi kids fed with oat fodder based basal diet supplemented with either tea seed or tea seed saponin extract. Eighteen male kids, 7.03 ± 0.16 months of age and 19.72 ± 0.64 kg body weight (BW) , were distributed into three groups, T0 (control), T1 and T2, consisting of 6 animals each in a completely randomised design. The kids were fed a basal diet consisting of concentrate mixture and oat fodder (50:50) to meet the maintenance requirement and for growth rate of 40 g/day. Animals in group III (T2) were supplemented with tea seed saponin (TSS) at 0.4% of dry matter intake (DMI), and group II (T1) were supplemented with tea seed at 2.6% to provide equivalent dose of TSS as in T2 . Two metabolism trials were conducted, 1st after 21 days and 2nd after 90 days of feeding to evaluate the short term and long term effects of supplementation. Results showed that the average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were improved (P<0.05) for T1 and T2 as compared to T0. However, the DMI intake did not differ among treatments. The tea seed (T1) or TSS (T2) supplementation did not affect digestibility of DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF. However, during short term there was decrease in ether extract digestibility in both T1 and T2 as compared to T0. Nutritive value of diet and plane of nutrition were also comparable among the treatments. The nitrogen balance was higher (P<0.05) in T2 for both short term as well as long term, however, in T1 only for long term as compared with control. However, the microbial protein supply was higher (P<0.05) for T1 and T2 for both the periods. There was no effect of supplementation on most blood parameters and PCV, Hb, glucose, BUN, total protein, albumin, globulin, A:G ratio, creatinine and bilirubin were comparable. However, the triglyceride and LDL cholesterol levels decreased (P<0.05) and HDL-cholesterol level increased (P<0.05) in T2 as compared with T0 and T1. Supplementation also did not affect the cell mediated and humoral immune response in goats. It is concluded that tea seed at 2.6% of DMI and TSS at 0.4% DMI can be fed to Gaddi goats to improve growth rate, FCR and microbial protein synthesis.