International Journal of Animal Science, Husbandry and Livestock Production ISSN: 2141-5191 Vol. 7(7), pp. 415-422, November, 2021. © Advanced Scholars Journals

Full length Research paper

Effects of gingember meal (Zingiberofficinalis) as food additive on the in vivo digestibility and feed intake of guinea pig (CaviaporcellusL.)

MBA Tene LA¹, Miegoue E¹*, Sawa C², Ntsafack P¹, Noumbissi MNB¹, Nguedia G¹and Tendonkeng F¹

^*1University of Dschang, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences; Department of Zootechny; Animal Nutrition and production Research Unit. P.O. Box. 188 Dschang, Cameroun.

²Institutde Recherche Agronomiquede Guinée Conakry. PO. Box.1523.

*Corresponding author; E-mail: [email protected]/ [email protected]; 

Accepted 11^th January, 2021

Abstract

Guinea pigs are monogastric herbivores with a particular digestive system essentially based on the gut flora equilibrium. Due to some of their properties, gingember meal in the diet can improve feed intake and the digestibility of diets by stimulating in the caecum the development of fibrolytics bacteria over pathogens bacteria. Thus, the aim of this work carried out at the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences (FAAS) of the University of Dschang farm was to study the effects of ginger powder (Zingiberofficinalis) as a food additive on the in vivo digestibility and intake of nutrients of guinea pigs. The trial was set up according to a factorial design (ration and sex) in four batches of 5 males and 5 females each. Thus, 40 guinea pigs weighing 450 ± 50 g were used. The control ration assigned to animals in batch 1 (TG 0) did not contain ginger meal. The animals of batch 2 (TG 0.5); 3 (TG 0.75) and 4 (TG 1) received respectively 0.5%; 0.75% and 1% ginger meal in their rations. The grassT. laxum was served ad libitum as base diet. It appears from this study that the ration containing 0% of  ginger meal significantly (p<0.05) improved the compound food (26.46 DM/d/ animal), the dry matter (DM) (89.52 DM/d/animal), the organic matter (MO) (81.51 DM/d/animal) and the  crude  protein  (PB)  (14.15  gDM/d/  animal) intake compared to animals of other diets. The ration containing 0.75% of ginger meal significantly better (p<0.05) improved the crude protein digestibility (94.92%) only on males.  Regarding   Daily weight gain (ADG), males of the control diet have obtained significantly better weight gain (26g/d) than others.

Key words: feed intake, Guinea pig, in vivo digestibility, weight gain, Zingiberofficinalis.