Vol. 7, Issue 6, Part A (2022)

Author(s): Isako Tura, Anthony King’ori, James Ondiek and Paul Onjoro

Abstract: Camel calves’ in pastoral production system are constrained by limited milk feeding. Their survival is important for camel herd growth and milk availability for the camel keepers. A seventy (70) days feeding trial was conducted to determine the nutritive value, dry matter intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and apparent digestibility coefficients in 15 growing camel calves with a body weight of 102.3 ±1.3 Kg (mean ± SE). They were randomly assigned to plant based milk replacer (PBMR) and commercial milk replacer (CMR) diets in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with five replications. The Crude Protein (CP), Metabolizable Energy (ME) and Dry Matter (DM) among other components were significantly (p<0.05) different between the two experimental treatments. The CP (gkg^-1 DM) was 181.2 in PBMR and 203.1 in CMR. The DM was 93.5 gkg^-1DM in CMR and 88.7 gkg^-1DM in PBMR. The ME was 17.4 MJ/kg DM in CMR and 15.4 MJ/kg DM in PBMR. The study revealed that calves on CMR (761.4 gd^-1) and PBMR (566.3 gd^-1) had a higher ADG compared to calves on pastoral management regime (453.7 gd^-1). FCR was higher in CMR (14.5) compared to PBMR (13.9). It was concluded that CMR and PBMR could be used as suitable replacements to camel milk.

DOI: 10.22271/veterinary.2022.v7.i6a.455