TABLE 1.

Chemical composition of experimental feeds.

	Commercial concentrate	Thymus schimperi leaf meal
Ingredient composition (%)
Toasted soybean meal	20
Maize grain	49
Noug a seed cake	14
Wheat bran	8
Limestone flour	4.5
Meat and bone meal	2
Vitamin and mineral premix b	2
Salt	0.5
Nutrient composition
Dry matter (%)	90	91.3
Crude protein (%)	18	8.04
Crude fibre (%)	8	15.4
Ether extract (%)	8	3.59
Total ash (%)	7.5	9.51
Calcium (%)	3.23
Total phosphorus (%)	0.74
Nitrogen free extract (%)	48.5	27.8
Metabolisable energy (MJ/kg DM) c	12.6	6.43
Total essential oil (g/kg)		15.1
Thymol (g/kg)		0.936
Carvacrol (g/kg)		9.56

^a Guizotia abyssinica.

^b Vitamin premix per kg of diet: vitamin A—2.7 mg; vitamin D3—0.05 mg; vitamin E—18 mg; vitamin K3—2 mg; thiamine—1.8 mg; riboflavin—6.6 mg; pantothenic acid—10 mg; pyridoxine—3 mg; cyanocobalamin—0.015 mg; niacin—30 mg; biotin—0.1 mg; folic acid—1 mg; choline chloride—250 mg; antioxidant—100 mg; Fe—50 mg; Mn—100 mg; Zn—100 mg; Cu—10 mg; I—1 mg; Se—0.2 mg.

^c Calculated according to Wiseman (1987).