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Effect of grass or cassava foliage on growth and nematode parasite infestation in goats fed low or high protein diets in confinement 

Seng Sokerya

University of Tropical Agriculture
kerya@uta.edu.kh

 

 The hypotheses that Kerya will test are:

1.       The infective nematode larvae come from leaves of plants that are very close to the ground (goats will become infected with grass and not with cassava foliage)

2.      Condensed tannins are secondary compounds in cassava leaves which have a direct effect to destroy the parasites in the gastro-intestinal tract

3.      With a good quality diet (protein rich) the parasite effect may be small even when the EPG is found at a high level

4.       In a poor nutritional diet, the effect of the parasite may result in loss of body condition and low growth rate

The design of the experiment is three treatments of G: Brewer’s Grain + grass, C: Brewer’s Grain + cassava foliage, GC: Brewer’s Grain + mixture of grass and cassava foliage (50:50 DM basis), with four replications in a randomized block design (CRD). Experimental periods will be 70 days excluding the adaptation period.

In the second experiment there are 4 treatments in a CRD with 2*2 factorial arrangement of

-          Protein level: High (HP) or low (LP)

-          Foliage: Cassava foliage (CF) or grass (G) as forage supplement

Measurements will be made of: growth rate of the goats and Eggs Per Gram (EPG) of faeces at  every 10 days interval.

 

The cassava foliage as offered to the goats	No problem feeding the fresh cassava foliage
The goat shed	The manure from the goats is a substrate for earthworms, in the space below the cages