Evaluation of supplemented ginger (Zingiber officinale) levels on the performance of growing and fattening Uda sheep in semi-arid Nigeria

Abstract

Two different experiments were conducted using fifteen growing lambs and fifteen fattening rams of Uda breed with average weight of 17and 21.4 kg and age of between 11and 20 months respectively to evaluate supplemented ginger levels on performance of the animals. In each experiment, the animals were randomly assigned to three treatment diets containing graded ginger levels in a completely randomized experimental design replicated five times. Ginger was supplemented at graded levels of 2.5 and 5% for treatments T2 and T3 respectively while treatment T1 (control) had no ginger. Results indicated a significantly lower body weight gain for growing animals (experiment 1) fed diets containing ginger (P<0.05) while feed conversion ratio (FCR) and cost of feed/kg live weight gain was higher. For fattening animals (experiment 2), ginger inclusion above 2.5% had a negative effect on fattening performance (P < 0.05). It was concluded that inclusion of ginger in the diet of growing and fattening Uda sheep could not improve performance.