Research in: Agricultural & Veterinary Sciences

Odontonema strictum oil is rich in several bioactive compounds with medicinal properties which are less toxic, environmental friendly and can promote food safety. To further examine their effects, a 60 days’ experiment (excluding 14 days’ quarantine period) was carried out using 28 Barbari bucks of about 8 months of age with an initial body weight of 30.55 ± 0.20 kg. Animals were stratified by live weight and randomly assigned to four treatments (n=7 goats per treatment). A completely randomized design was adopted and animals in treatment 1 (T¹) which also served as the control received basal diet only while T², T³ and T⁴ were fed basal diet supplemented with 0.1 mL, 0.2 mL and 0.3 mL Odontonema strictum oil respectively. Odontonema strictum oil supplementation enhanced (p<0.05) the average body weight gain and average daily feed intake. High Odontonema strictum oil supplementation decreased (p˃0.05) the feed conversion ratio, methane enteric emission and improved the concentrations (p<0.05) of total volatile fatty acids, acetate, propionate and ruminal ammonia nitrogen compared to the control. Ruminal temperature, butyrate and pH values were not (p˃0.05) affected by the treatment. In conclusion, Odontonema strictum oil supplementation at 0.3 mL/kg DM feed improved weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and also have positive effects on ruminal fermentation without causing any detrimental effect on the performance of animals.