This study investigated the dietary effect of cellphone recharge cards treated with Trichoderma harzanium on performance of goats. Discarded cards (10kg) from the popular Nigerian mobile companies (MTN, GLO and Multlinks) were collected and incubated with Trichoderma harzanium in solid state fermentation for seven days. The resulting substrate was included in the diet of West African (WAD) goat (n= 12). The goats were allocated at random to three groups for eight weeks to examine the efficacy of three diets: A (control diet without cards, 0%); B (3.5% proportion of Trichoderma-treated card) and C (6.5% proportion of the Trichoderma-treated cards). Parameters assessed included feed intake, digestibility coefficient, weight gain and feed efficiency of WAD goat. Addition of the fungus-treated cards in the diet of goat significantly (p<0.05) enhanced the dry matter intake, crude fibre intake and ether extract intake. Digestibility of crude protein did not differ between diets A (control) and B (3.5% part). Crude fibre and ether extract digestibility were significantly increased (p<0.05) for diets with 3.5 and 6.5% treated cards. The weight gain of animals on diet with 3.5% cards was similar to that of the control diet. The results suggest that the addition of Trichoderma treated cards in the diet of goat holds a good promise in developing a novel feedstuff through biotechnology.

Key words 
Trichoderma harzanium, recharge cards, diet, performance, goat

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