Ikusika, O.OMpendulo, C.TZindove, T.ZOkoh, A.I2024-08-032024-08-032019-08-16Ikusika OO, Mpendulo CT, Zindove TJ, Okoh AI. Effect of Varying Inclusion Levels of Fossil Shell Flour on Growth Performance, Water Intake, Digestibility and N Retention in Dohne-Merino Wethers. Animals (Basel). 2019 Aug 16;9(8):565. doi: 10.3390/ani9080565.https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9080565https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31426359/https://hdl.handle.net/11288/597100This study was carried out to determine the effect of varying levels of Fossil shell flour (FSF) supplementation on growth performance, water intake, digestibility and N retention in Dohne Merino sheep pursuant to establishing the optimum inclusion rate of this supplement in Dohne Merino diets. Sixteen Dohne-Merino wethers (18 ± 1.5 kg body weight) were used in a complete randomized design with four animals per treatment. Sheep were fed a basal diet without FSF addition (control, T1), or with the addition of FSF (2%, T2), (4%, T3) or (6%, T4) of the diet for 105 days. Treatment 3 (4% FSF) has the highest values of dry matter intake, total weight gain, N retention and for most of the apparent digestibility nutrients (CP, EE and Ash) compared to treatment T1, T2 and T4(p < 0.05). The urinary and fecal N excretion also significantly decreased in the FSF treated diets compared to the control (p < 0.05). Water intake values were highest in control and were significantly (p < 0.05) different from those in treatments 2 and 4, but not to treatment 3. It is concluded that 4% inclusion rate of FSF will give the best improvement on growth performance, diet digestibility and N retention of Dohne-Merino sheep. Also, the addition of FSF in the diets of sheep is a safe natural additive that can help to reduce environmental pollution by reducing fecal and urinary N excretion.enAttribution 3.0 United Stateshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/Fossil shell flourGrowth performanceDigestibilityNitrogen utilizationDohne-MerinoArticleAnimals