Abstract

Aim: The study was aimed to assess the effect of diet on guinea pigs health, a study on the incorporation of Stylosanthes guianensis and Ipomea batatas leaves meal in guinea pig diet.

Method and materials: 36 guinea pigs of 3 weeks age born at the RAF were sexed, identified and randomly distributed according to a factorial design of 4 diets and sexes. The leaves of each plant were harvested individually, dried, crushed and mixed with others food ingredients  in order to constitute different diets: R₀ (control), R_FP (20% of I. batatas leaves meal), R_ST (20% of S.  guianensis meal ) and R_{FP + ST} (10% of I. batatas leaves meal + 10% S. guianensis meal). Diets were randomly assigned and each animal received 60 g of food corresponding to its lodge every day between 6 and 8 am. The animals were thus fed until 16 weeks of age. At the 16^th week, 6 guinea pigs (3 females and 3 males) were randomly chosen from each batch fasted for 12 hours then slighted by cervical dislocation and total bleeding in the throat.  Blood sample collected were used for the hematological, lipid and toxicity parameters analysis.

Results: It showed that white blood cells (21.31x10³/ µl), hematocrit (40.78%) and blood platelets (403.17x10³ / µl) were significantly elevated in guinea pigs fed with R_FP diet. Total cholesterol, HDL and LDL were comparable. R_FP diet significantly lowered urea concentration regardless of gender. However, no value exceeded standards for both hematology and other parameters. Sex had no significant effect regardless of the characteristic. R_FP diet seems to be most appropriate in guinea pigs.

Conclusion: It was concluded that number of white blood cells, blood platelets and hemoglobin significantly increased with the addition of forages in the diet. The incorporation of forages in the diet significantly increased the weight of the lung, kidneys and heart while remaining within the standards.

Statistics