Rumen Metabolites and Microbial Load in Fattening Yankasa Rams Fed Urea and Lime Treated Groundnut (Arachis Hypogeae) Shell in a Complete Diet

The study was conducted to determine effect of treated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) shell in a complete diet on blood metabolites and microbial load in fattening Yankasa rams. Each kilogram of groundnut shell was treated with 5% urea and 5% lime for treatments 2 (UTGNS) and 3 (LTGNS) respectively. For treatment 4 (ULTGNS), 1 kg of groundnut shell was treated with 2.5% urea and 2.5% lime, but shell in treatment 1 was not treated (UNTGNS). Sixteen Yankasa rams were used and randomly assigned to the four treatments diets with four animals per treatment in a completely randomized design (CRD). The diet was formulated to have 14% crude protein (CP) content. Rumen fluid was collected from each ram at the end of the experiment at 0 and 4 hours post feeding. The samples were then put in a 30 ml bottle and acidified with 5 drops of concentrated sulphuric (0.1N H2SO4) acid to trap ammonia. The results of the blood metabolites showed that the mean values of NH3-N differed significantly (P 0.05) in the bacteria count of the animals at both 0 and 4 hours post feeding. But rumen fungi and protozoa load at 0 hour were significantly (P