PRELIMINARY SURVEY ON MILK THISTLE (SILI0UM MARIANUM) UTILIZATION IN RUMINANT ANIMALS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

A survey was conducted to assess the utilization of milk thistle (Silybum marianum) as a feed resource for ruminant animals in some selected Local Government Areas of Kano State a semi-arid region of Nigeria. A total of one hundred and fifty (150) structured questionnaires were designed and administered to randomly selected livestock farmers that reared goats in the selected areas. Information such as the nutritional and medicinal values of the milk thistle plant was obtained and analysed using simple descriptive statistics of frequency tables and percentages. The results obtained showed that most of the farmers were males (83.30%), (55.33%) were within the age of 30-40 years and married (93.33%). All respondents had some certain level of education. A multitude of the respondents (53.33%) were livestock and crop farmers (56.67%) of who owned their foundation stock through purchase. Most of the respondents (61.33%) rear goats, (90.00%) of the respondents practice semi-intensive systems of animal production. (86.67%) of the respondents have access to veterinary facilities and (50.68%) feed
their animals with crop residue during the dry season, only (29.73%) feed their stock with fodders, browse plants and shrubs, and 19.59% with household waste. 70.00% of the respondents acknowledged that they knew milk thistle and 83.81% utilized the plant as an ingredient in the animal ration. while 8% is herbal medicine. Among the respondents that acknowledged they used the plant, 8.11% uses milk thistle for fattening while 21.62% used it as a milk enhancer, 29.73% fed it during feed scarcity, with 40.54% feeding milk thistle to cure ailments. The study
concludes that milk thistle plants were identified as animal feed, milk enhancer, and traditional medicine for humans and ruminant animals in the study area and that the respondents have the knowledge of feeding milk thistle plants, and many have been feeding their ruminants with the plant. The study recommends that milk thistle plants be evaluated for nutritional and anti-nutritional components and mixed with other feed ingredients for better utilization by ruminants.