Abstract
An experiment was conducted at the Akwa Ibom State University, Department of Animal Science research farm to determine the effect of graded levels of toasted Jackfruit seed (JFS) meal on growth performance, haematology, serum biochemistry and cost analysis of West African Dwarf (WAD) bucks. The experiment lasted 90 days. Sixteen bucks aged 7 – 9 months and averaging 8.0± 0.01kg in weight were divided into 4 groups of 4 with each group randomly assigned to one of the treatments in a completely Randomized Design. The four treatments were formulated to contain 0, 7.5, 10 and 12.5% of jackfruit seed meals respectively. The values for growth parameters were not significantly (P>0.05) different except for feed conversion ratio (FCR). The bucks on treatment 3 (10% JFS meal) have the least FCR (3.82) and the least cost/kg weight gain (₦293.00) though not significantly (P>0.05) different with a corresponding increase in gross margin (₦4113.00) of the same treatment. The haematological and serum biochemical indices studied were significantly (P<0.05) different across all the treatments except for eosinophils. The highest total protein (7.13g/dl) and calcium (5.76 mmol/l) content were recorded in T3. This result has indicated safe nutritional regimes of JFS meal and its inclusion up to 10% is ideal for optimum cost/kg weight gain which is suggestive of enhanced buck production.