Growth Performance and Physiological Status of intensively raised West African Dwarf (WAD) Goats Supplemented with Dietary Antioxidants

THIS study explored the impact of dietary antioxidant supplementation on growth performance and blood profile of intensively raised West African dwarf goats. Thirty West African dwarf goats (8.00 +/- 0.13 kg) were divided into five treatment groups of six (6) animals per group and randomly allotted to one of the five diets supplemented with (1). no dietary antioxidant (control); (2). Vitamin E (200mg/kg of feed); (3).Vitamin C (600mg/kg of feed); (4). 200mg Vitamin E+ 0.2mg Selenium/kg of feed; (5). 600mg Vitamin C+ 0.2mg Selenium/ kg of feed respectively, in a completely randomized design. The results revealed that dietary antioxidant supplementation significantly (p<0.05) influenced the red blood cell (RBC) with higher values in selenium supplemented groups, white blood cell (WBC) and basophil counts. Albumin, glucose and alanine transaminase (ALT) significantly (p<0.05) differed across the diets. The significantly (p<0.05) reduced thiobabutiric acid substance (TBARS) in supplemented groups compared to the control justified the scavenging characteristics of the supplemented antioxidants. Furthermore, cholesterol, uric acid, glutathione (GSH), glutathione S -tranferase (GST) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were oxidative biomarkers significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the antioxidants supplementation while bilirubin and Vitamin E were similar across the treatments. The findings of this study revealed that Vitamin E, Vitamin C and their combination with Selenium did not only enhance erythrocyte formation but improved immune response and health status as well as the oxidative status of the goats by reducing the activities of TBARS and increasing the activities of SOD, GSH and GST.