INFLUENCE OF THREE PELLETS BASED GREEN FODDERS, PRODUCTS AND BY-PRODUCTS MAIZE ON THE GROWTH OF BRED GRASSCUTTER (THRYONOMYS SWINDERIANUS) IN BENIN

F. F. Aizoun 1,2 *, S. C. B. Pomalegni 1 , C. D. S. J. Gbemavo 3 , S. Farougou 2 , A. K .I. Youssao 4 and G.A. Mensah 1 . 1. Laboratory of Zootechnical, Veterinary and Halieutic Research (LRZV), Centre of Agricultural Research/Agonkanmey (CRA) of the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Benin (INRAB), 01 BP 884 Master recipe, Cotonou, 01 Republic of Benin. 2. Department of Animal Production and health, Biotechnology Research Unit of Production and Animal Health, Polytechnic School of Abomey-Calavi, University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC), 01 BP 2009 Cotonou, Benin. 3. Laboratory of Biomathematics and Forest Estimates (LABEF), Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC), 04 BP 1525, Cotonou, Benin. 4. University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC),Polytechnic School of Abomey-Calavi (EPAC), 2Department of Animal Production and health, Laboratory of Research in Applied Biology, 01 BP 2009 Cotonou, Benin. ...................................................................................................................... ManuscriptInfo Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History


ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 4 (12), 804-815 805 captivity for more 3000heads breeders (Mensah et al., 2013).Faced with this changing herd of cane rat through the efforts over the years, some constraints remain to be overcome in many areas especially in food. Indeed food, an important position in animal production, is a serious constraint and a major concern for all farmers in general and aulacodiculteurs installed in urban and péri-urban areas of Benin in particular (Mensah, 2000). Grasscutter is fed with a variety of fodder which is the basis of their food and a food supplement of energetic matter, nitrogen, vitamins and minerals (Tolebaet al., 2007;Tolebaet al., 2009).The nutritional value of these forages are low, breeders have always resort to dietary supplement. Thus the low nutritional value of fodder and difficulties proper rationing generate growth retardation, from where obtaining low weight militating in disfavor of the selection of reproductives and animals held for sale (Soroet al., 2014).
In Benin, the green fodders are very abundant in the rainy season and very rare in the dry season. Furthermore, agricultural products and agro-industrial and especially the products and by-products of maize available for use during the lean period is not sufficiently valued. The composition of suitable fodder or with conventional fodder or food ingredients that will enhance the optimum performance of the grasscutter is yet to be established (Okeke and Mogbo, 2013). The grasscutters of breeding by eating behavior which is to sort between the particles of the food makes this animal a wasteful 70% of fodders which are served him (Mensahet al., 1996;Mensah, 1997;Traoré, 2010). So several authors have undertaken studies on the possibility to feed the grasscutter with pellets (Aïzounet al., 2015;Pomalegniet al., 2015). The Granulation of rations allows the sort of food particles by animals and control the proportions of different food components ingested by the animal.Which allows of determines the digestibility of each food component with more accurately than when food is distributed in the state (Traoreet al., 2009;Yapi, 2013).Being given a large margin of progress of parameters zootechnical in breed grasscutters is denoted through the diversity of the results recorded in several experiments (Joriet al., 2001), and that the products and by-products of maize are available to be valorize ; it is imperative to valorize by incorporating them in feed of grasscutter. For this, we have proposed to produce three types of pellets based from green fodders and/of products and by-products of maize and other food ingredients and evaluate their influences on growth performance of grasscutter in captivity. Research assumptions are: (i) the pellet 1 consists of green fodders, products and by-products maize and other food ingredients is the most consumed by livestock aulacodes (ii) grasscutter fed with pellets externalize good growth performance (iii) grasscutter fed with the pellet 1 express the best performance.

Materialsand Methods:-Study site:--
The experiment was conducted in a grasscutter place of rearing of Non-Conventional Animal Species Breeding Sub-Programm (S-PEEANC) of Zootechnical Veterinary and Halieutic Research Laboratory (LRZVH) in Agricultural Research Centre of Agonkanmey (CRA-Agonkanmey) in National Institute of Agricultural Research of Benin (INRAB) located in Commune of Abomey-Calavi.The climate is type Guinean, with two dry seasons (mid-November to mid-March and mid-July to mid-September) and two rainy seasons (mi-March to mi-July and mi-September to mi-November). The average rainfall is 1.200 mm per year and average monthly temperatures vary between 27 and 31°C with relative humidity fluctuates between 65 % from January to March and 97% from June to July. The monthly average was between 27 and 31°C with a deviation of 3.2°C between the hottest month (March) and the least hot (August).
Animal material, measurement and infrastructures:-27 experimental bred grasscutter aged 7 months were used , divided into three groups with a live weight of 1928.4 ± 51.99 g; 2286 g ± 59.52 and 46.05 ± 2077.6 g respectively.The enclosures of rectangular shaped stage 3 levels were used for the conduct of grasscutters. Communicated with a square opening of 0.2 m square drilled in a median wall and on the floor. This opening allowed the free passage of grasscutter from one compartment to another. For the experiment, the communication openings of the enclosure were closed by bricks to isolate animals. Each enclosure was equipped with feeder and waterer.A scale weighing of accuracy of brand Kitchen with reach 5 kg and of accuracy 1 g and peson ordinary of capacity 10 kg (50 g scale) of accuracy 1/500 were also used for weighing different samples.Brooms and shovels were used for cleaning of enclos and aulacoderie.

Production of pellets:-
After picking, the fodders were cut, dried in the shade.These fodder plants were crushed at the mill. Other food ingredients including maize grain, wheat bran, rice bran, cassava chips, cottonseed meal, soybean meal, the oyster shells and salt were also crushed. All forages and concentrates are placed in a blender to have a homogeneous mixture. The resulting mixture was then placed in an extruder to effect granulation. Three pellets were produced for 806 testing.The pellet 1 consisted of green fodders and food supplements, the pellet 2 consisted of products and byproducts maize and the pellet 3 consisted of green fodders, food supplements and medicinal plants.The proportion and the quantity of ingredients used in the formulas are shown in Table 1. Experimental conditions:-The 27 grasscutters were divided into three groups of nine (09) grasscutters and divided into three under-groups of three grasscutters.The experimental device was a randomized complete block with three treatments (pellets) repeated three times.The nine under-groups were considered units of observation. Each block has received three rations because of a ration by subgroup in the block.After their repartition in under-group, grasscutters underwent dietary transition of ten (10) days following the recommendations made by Mensah and Ekué (2003).Food distribution is done once in the morning between 7 and 8 hours. Water was served at will in the trough and renewed every day. Every day the foods are weighed before the service. The next day after cleaning the pens, the refus are rid of feces and weighed.

Determination of parameters zootechnical:-
Parameters such as average weight gain, average daily gain , feed consumption ratio and daily food consumption were determined at the end of the experiment. The formulas used are shown in Table 2  Table 2 Agricultural Sciences (FSA) of University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC). The Determination of dry matter (DM) was made by drying by placing in an oven at 105°C for 24 h to stabilize the weight and then weighed after it has cooled. This is for remove any residual water. The determination of the crude protein content was made by the method Kjeldahl (AOAC, 2000), the crude fiber by the method of Van Soestet al. (1991), the fat was determined by the Soxhlet device (AOAC, 2000) and that of crude ash by carbonization slow at oven.The contents of calcium and phosphorus are assayed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The analysis of each chemical element was repeated twice.

Data statistical analysis:-
Descriptive statistics was conducted in terms of mean and standard deviation for the data.The normality test ofRoyan-Joiner and the test of equality of variances were performed for test respectily the normality and equal variances.In the case of normality, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for the zootechnical parameters. Otherwise, the non-parametric test Kuskal-Wallis was performed at threshold 5 %.The separation of averages was carried from the Tukey test at threshold 5%.The analyzes were performed with the R3.0.2 software (R Development Core Team. 2012.http://www.Rproject.org/).The different curves were carried out with Excel 2010.

Results:-Nutritional values of pellets:-
The bromatological analysis of three pellets gives the values of the nutrients shown in Table 3. The dry matter content and the fat matter of the three pellets were not significantly different (p>0.05).As against the organic matter and total carbon was significantly different for the three pellets (p<0.05), as well as that of crude protein, crude fiber, total ash, Calcium and phosphorus for the three pellets (p<0.05).

Weighting growth of grasscutters experimental fed with pellets:-
The Body average live weight of grasscutters fed with pellet 1 during the experiment ranged from 1928,4 ± 51.99 g à 2865.6 ± 63.96 g and that of grasscutters fed the pellets 2 ranged from 2286 ± 59,52g à 2818,8 ± 134,2 g.In the grasscutters fed with pellet 3, average weight ranging from 2077.6 ± 46.05 g à 2832.6 ± 93.73 gwas recorded. The increase in body average weight was continuous in the grasscutters fed with three pellets. The difference was significant between the average weight of animals fed with three pellets from start to week 6 (p<0.05).By cons of the 8th week until the end the difference was not significant (p>0.05).

Performance of grasscutters fed with three pellets during the experiment:-
The results show that average daily gain is (10.41 ± 0.24 g/day ) in grasscutters fed with the pellet 1, (5.92 ± 1.06 g/day) for grasscutters fed with pellet 2 and 8.39 ± 0.73 g/day in the grasscutters fed with pellet 3 (table 5). The difference was significant between average daily gain of grasscutters fed with three pellets 3 (p<0.05). It is the same for the weight change (p<0.05) and daily food consumption (p<0.05).The average consumption indices recorded during the experiment ranged from 0.066 ± 0.018 to 0.083 ± 0.008 with a significant difference (p < 0.05). Bi-weekly average weight gain in of grasscutters fed with three pellets:- Figure 1 show the performance of growth in of grasscutters experimental fed with three pellets. An average weight gain increase was noted in the second week until the end of the experiment. From start to 8th week, the growth was similar for grasscutters fed the pellets 1 and 3. But of the 8th week at the 12th week, a more pronounced growth was observed in animals fed with the pellet 1.From the 4th week until the end of the experiment, the grasscutters fed with pellet 2 have expressed of weight gains less significant than the grasscutters fed the pellets 1 and 3 except for the 10th week where the means weight gain registered in the grasscutters fed with pellets 2 and 3 were similar.  Figure 2 shows the evolution of the average bi-weekly food consumption the grasscutters fed with three pellets.Minimum average food consumption of 39.13 ± 3.92 g and 53.78 ± 2.38 g was obtained between 0 and 14th day of the experiment respectively for the pellet 2, and the pellet 3 and 58.07 ± 2.68 g for pellet 1 between 15th and 29th day.Average maximum values of the food consumption of 66.17 ± 2.78 g and 58.18 ± 2.20 g respectively for the pellet 1 and 3 were obtained between the 45th and the 59th day against 50.75 ± 192 g for the pellet 2 between the    The crude protein obtained in this study for pellets 1 and 3 (14.09 and 17.59%) are within the range from 12 to 18.5 % and 14-18 % dry matter recommended for grasscutters (Mensah, 1993;Mensah, 1995 The difference in average weight gain observed between the values found in this study and those reported by various authors may be the result of differences in chemical quality including the difference between the protein levels in the various food used.For Increased body weight may be associated with high levels of protein in the diet. And the protein content influences the amount of food consumed by herbivores (Minson, 1997 .(2003).The difference observed for the daily food consumption during this study and cited works may be due to the chemical composition of feed and the physical form of food presentation.The increase in crude fiber in the diet cause the decreased of food consumption (Etchuet al., 2012); which is in agreement with the results obtained in this study. The increase in fiber content in feed rations of grasscutters may be associated with a decrease in the digestibility of dry matter, protein and fat in dominant animals and a reduction in the growth rate (Van Zylet al., 1999).

Food consumption conversion ratios:-
Food consumption aims to meet the food needs and get better growth and better production in animals (Traoreet al., 2009).This is best reflected by the food consumption index that varies among the grasscutters as already mentioned Mensah (1995

Conclusion:-
The objective of this study is to formulate the pellets based green fodder and/or of products and by-products of maize and other food ingredients to evaluate the zootechnical performance of grasscutters fed with the pellets.At the end of our work the results show that the grasscutters can be fed with pellets made based green fodders and products and by-products of maize with the externalization of good zootechnical performance. The best performance are recorded in grasscutters fed with the pellets 1 and 3 based from green fodders, products and by-products of maize and other food ingredients compared to the grasscutters fed with pellets 2 based from products and by-products of maize. The pellets 2 can be used in grasscutters breeding to feed in all seasons the grasscutters thus settling the thorny problem of affouragement fodder in all seasons, reducing the breeding driving time and allow better extérioration of zootechnical performance of grasscutters breeding.