Nutrient Composition, Pest and Microbial Status And Effects of Discarded Biscuits on the Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Economic Profiles of Growing- Finishing Pigs
Loading...
Date
2013-12-18
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to evaluate Discarded Biscuits (DB) as an alternative to maize in pig diets. Proximate composition, pest and microbial status of the DB and the effects on growth performance, carcass characteristics, blood and other economic profiles of growing-finishing pigs were determined. Prior to the trial, samples of the DB were examined for the proximate composition, pest and microbial status. The proximate composition of the DB was 17% moisture, 9.90% crude protein, 0.63% crude fibre, 11.00% ether extract, 0.50% ash and 60.97% nitrogen- free- extract. The DB was infested with Tribolium species, with both live and dead insects present. The microbes contained in the DB samples were three fungi species namely, Penicillium spp., Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus versicolor with Penicillium spp. being the most predominant. A total of twenty Large White starter pigs aged 9-10 weeks with an average initial weight of 16.6kg were used for the trial. The pigs were allotted to five groups with four replicates in a Complete Randomized Block Design. They were fed ad-libitum with isonitrogenous diets containing 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% levels of DB replacing similar amounts of maize and representing treatments T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. Feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion efficiency were determined weekly and at the end of the feeding trial. Blood samples were collected via the ear vein for haematological and serum biochemical assay when a pig attained a liveweight of62 0.5kg weight but before being slaughtered for the determination of carcass characteristics. There were no significant (P>0.05) differences in Average daily feed intake (ADFI), Average total feed intake (ATFI), Average daily weight gain (ADWG), Average total weight gain (ATWG) and Feed conversion efficiency (FCE) values for the four dietary treatments. There was a linear decrease in feed cost as the level of DB increased in the diet, and the cost of gain followed a similar trend. The haematological and serum biochemical studies did not (P>0.05) indicate any dietary influence. Carcass characteristics were similar (P>0.05). It was concluded that DB could constitute as much as 30% of the diet and replace about 60% of the maize in the diet of growing pig without any adverse effect on growth performance and carcass characteristics thereby reducing the competition for maize between humans and livestock.
Description
A Thesis submitted to the Department of Animal Science,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of
MASTER OF SCIENCE, 2013