Effect of Substituting Dried Mulberry (Morus alba) Leaves for Concentrate Mixture on Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics in Lambs Fed a Natural Pasture Hay Based Diet

Abstract

This study evaluated the effect of substituting dried mulberry (Morus alba) leaves for concentrate mixture (CM; wheat bran and noug/niger (Guizotia abyssinica) seed cake mixture in 2: 1 proportion) on performance and carcass characteristics of sheep fed a basal diet of natural pasture hay. Thirty local yearling male sheep with an initial body weight (BW) of 18.2±1.61 kg were assigned to treatments in a completely
randomized block design. Treatments were iso-nitrogenous supplements of 100% CM offered at 250 g DM/sheep/d (T1), 67% CM and 33% dried mulberry leaves (ML: T2), 33% CM and 67% ML (T3), 100% ML (T4) and 100% dried Leucaena leucocephala (LL) leaves (T5). The feeding and digestibility trials lasted for 90 and 7 days, respectively. Carcass of each experimental animal was evaluated at the end of the digestibility trial. The highest (P<0.05) DM intake was observed in treatment T4 (868.8±60.7) while the lowest intake was found in T1 (756.4±84.2) and T5 (763.5±115.6). The digestibility of nutrients (DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF), average daily gain and carcass characteristics were similar in different treatments. Therefore, mulberry leaves could serve as a complete alternative replacement for wheat bran and niger-seed cake based conventional concentrate mixtures in lambs under Ethiopian smallholder farming conditions.