Effect of Allium sativum extract on growth performance, nutrient intake, digestibility, and nitrogen utilization of West African Dwarf goats artificially infected with Haemonchus contortus

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Allium sativum on the performance of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats artificially infected with Barber’s pole worm (Haemonchus contortus). Twenty-five WAD goats were randomly assigned to five treatment groups in a Completely Randomised Design in a 56-day performance trial, after which the animals were moved to a metabolic cage for a digestibility study with an adjustable period of 7days, after which the digestibility study was carried out for five days. The treatments included a negative control (saline water 7 ml), a positive control (10 mg/ml of albendazole), and three groups received garlic (A. sativum) extract at varying concentrations (7.5, 12.5, and 17.5 mg/ml). The results showed that final weight, weight gain, daily weight gain, dry matter intake, and feed conversion ratio were significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the treatments. The highest values for final weight (10.64 kg), weight gain (2.10 kg), and daily weight gain (37.48 g/day) were recorded in the group treated with 10 mg/ml of albendazole, which could be related to the ability of the animals to better utilise nutrients obtained from feed consumed with minimal interference from the parasitic worm. However, the final weight was comparable to that of goats treated with A. sativum extract at different levels. The lowest final weight (8.77 kg) was observed in the negative control group. Nitrogen intake, faecal nitrogen, nitrogen balance, and nitrogen absorption also showed significant (P < 0.05) differences among treatments. The highest nitrogen intake (331.07 g/day) was recorded in the negative control group, which was comparable to the value observed in the albendazole-treated group (303.90 g/day). Meanwhile, lower but similar nitrogen intake values were obtained in the groups treated with different concentrations of A. sativum extract.