The experimental site was Sheep and Goats Unit of Teaching and Research Farm, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Ogbomoso. Oyo State Nigeria. Ogbomoso is located in the derived savanna zone of Nigeria and lies on 8˚7'N and 4˚15'E [10] .

Four growing male West African dwarf (WAD) goats were used for the study. The goats were sourced from one of the goat markets in Ogbomoso North Local Government Area. The goats were brought to the unit and housed in separate pen; each pen had water and feed troughs. The goats were maintained on cassava peels and Gliricidia sepium during the first four weeks acclimatization period prior to the start of the study. The goats were served cassava peels and Gliricidia sepium between 08:00 and 10:00 hr daily and were drafted to graze on Panicum maximum and Pennisetum purpureum grasses around the fenced animal house between 10:00 and 16:00 hr and return to their respective pens by 16:00 hrs. Water was offered on ad libitum basis throughout the acclimatization and trial periods. The body weights of the goats at the commencement of the study were: 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 and 10.0 kg.

Fresh Pueraria phaseoloides leaves were harvested from New Pasture Introductory Unit and air dried in Pasture conservation shed for two weeks and milled using a milling machine with 1 mm sieve to obtain PPLM. The PPLM were bagged in ten polythene sacs and preserved pending the time of preparation of the concentrate diets.

The feed ingredients and experimental diets are presented in Table 1; there were four experimental diets: Diet 1 (0% PPLM); Diet 2 (10% PPLM); Diet 3 (20% PPLM) and Diet 4 (30% PPLM). The diets differed in the level of Pueraria phaseoloides leaf meal (PPLM) inclusion. Pueraria phaseoloides leaf meal was used as protein feed ingredient and replaced wheat offal. The experimental design was a 4 × 4 Change-Over Latin Square Design (Table 2) and the study lasted twelve weeks (four weeks of pre-trial acclimatization period inclusive).

The experimental diets were subjected to proximate (crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), ether extractives (EE), ash and nitrogen free extractives (NFE)) analysis according to [12] procedures. The blood constituents analysed as described by [12] were: blood protein (total protein, albumin and globulin) and blood micro-mineral elements (iron, copper and zinc).

The experimental data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) as described by [13] . Treatment means were compared using the standard error of the difference (s.e.d.) between means for significance (p < 0.05).

Results of proximate and energy compositions analysis of the experimental diets are presented in Table 3; the range values of the diets CP (19.24% and 20.12%) revealed that the diets differed marginally in CP contents.

Feed intakes, live weights changes and haematological constituents’ data are presented in Table 4; differences

Nb: CP, CF, EE, NFE, GE and PPLM imply crude protein, crude fibre, ether extractives, nitrogen free extractives, gross energy and Pueraria phaseoloides leaf meal, respectively.

between treatments for feed intakes and changes in live weights of the goats were not significant (p > 0.05). However, goats on Diets 1 and 2 recorded positive weight changes with goats on Diet 1 having the highest positive weight change. The highest intake of goats on Diet 1 that lacked PPLM seems to suggest acceptability of the diet. Anti-nutrients limit the availability and utilization of nutrients by animals [14] . Previous study [15] revealed that Pueraria phaseoloides contains anti-nutrients such as tannins, phytate, oxalate, HCN and saponin; these anti-nutrients probably were responsible for the reduction in both intake and weight gain on diets containing PPLM. Feed intakes, live weight changes, blood protein and micro-mineral elements of the growing male WAD goats were unaffected by the dietary treatments imposed. Feed intake influences growth performance of animals [16] . The insignificance (p > 0.05) recorded for changes in live weights of the WAD goats was expected because their feed intakes were not significantly different (p > 0.05). [8] did report that protein contents of diets influence intake; the insignificance in voluntary feed intakes can be ascribed to the marginal difference in CP contents of the diets as revealed in the results of proximate analysis. This is consistent with the previous reports by [17] that diets that are marginally different in CP contents are unlikely to influence growth performance of animals significantly. Nutrition status influences blood protein constituents [8] . Similarly, the insignificance recorded for the blood protein constituents can also be attributed to the marginal difference in CP contents of the experimental diets.