GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND COST BENEFITS OF FEEDING GROWING PIGS WITH CASSAVA PEEL MEAL-BASED DIETS SUPPLEMENTED WITH A COMMERCIAL ENZYME

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of replacing maize with cassava peel meal (CPM) supplemented with a commercial enzyme, on the growth performance and cost benefits of growing pigs. Twenty-four growing pigs with average weight of 14.0 ± 0.25 kg were allotted to 6 dietary treatments, where CPM replaced maize at 0, 50 and 100% levels with enzyme supplementation at 0g/100kg and 20g/100kg of diet. Each treatment was replicated 4 times while the experiment lasted 8 weeks. Data were collected on daily feed intake (DFI), daily weight gain (DWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), feed cost/weight gain and feed cost/day. The CPM based diets gave comparable (P>0.05) pigs' growth performance especially in terms of DWG (0.32 -0.40) and FCR (3.13-4.03) as did the maize based diets. Feed cost/day (70.35-N98.01) as well as feed cost/weight gain (N195.33-N244.65) reduced insignificantly (P>0.05) with inclusion of CPM in the diets of the pigs. Enzyme supplementation of diets did not influence (P>0.05) pigs' growth performance and cost benefit. Cassava peel meal can totally replace maize without enzyme supplementation in the diets of growing pigs to reduce cost with optimal performance.