Relationship among Body Weight, Testicular Traits and Linear Body Measurements of Red Sokoto Bucks Fed Different Levels of Sabara (Guiera senegalensis) Leaf Meals

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of sabara leaf meal on body weight, testicular traits and linear body measurements. Live body and testicular measurements (body weight, height at withers, body length, heart girth, testicular circumference and testicular length were monitored on Red Sokoto bucks). Bucks were managed in a complete randomized design with 4 treatments and replicates. The sabara leaf meal (SLM) was fed at concentration of 0, 10, 20 and 30% in treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Bucks fed diets with 10-30% SLM gained weight (P < 0.05) better than those fed the control diets. The body length, height at withers and testicular circumference all increased with level of SLM in the diets with bucks on 20% SLM being heavier, however heart girth and testicular length were not affected by the dietary treat-ments. All phenotypic correlations between body and testicular measurements were positive and significant (P < 0.01). The highest correlation coefficient was found between testicular circumference and body weight. It could be concluded that SLM inclusion from 20-30% level gave high growth performance in terms of body and testicular measurements without any adverse effect on performance. More research is therefore needed to examine the fertility of bucks fed sabara leaf meal.