Effect of Dietary Inclusion of Pawpaw Seed Powder on Nutrient Digestibility, Rumen Fermentation, Blood Metabolites and Growth of Sheep

The study was conducted to determine the effect of pawpaw seed powder inclusion sheep diet on the nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation, blood metabolites and growth of sheep. Twenty- four West African Dwarf male sheep (7 to 8 month- old) with an average live body weight of 7.00±0.69 kg were used. They were randomly distributed into four treatment diets of six each with three replicates of two animals per replicate in a completely randomized design. The diets were D₁ (0% pawpaw seed powder: control), D₂ (1% pawpaw seed powder), D₃ (2% pawpaw seed powder) and D₄ (3% pawpaw seed powder). Dry matter (70.84%), crude protein (71.99%), crude fibre (70.53%) digestibility, rumen temperature (39.56°C), volatile fatty acids (98.03 mmol/L), propionate (24.03 mol/100ml), total bacteria (9.01x10⁶ CFU/ml), total serum protein (7.29 g/dl), albumin (3.81 g/dl), glucose (71.03 mg/dl), final body weight (10.75 kg) and daily weight gain (38.21 g/day) were significantly (P<0.05) improved in diet D₄ than other diets. It can be concluded that dietary inclusion of 3% pawpaw seed powder improved nutrient digestibility and modified rumen fermentation to enhance serum blood indices and growth performance in sheep.