GROWTH RESPONSE AND APPARENT NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY OF GROWING PIGS FED DIETS CONTAINING VARYING LEVELS OF PINEAPPLE (Ananas comosus) WINE SEDIMENT BASED DIETS

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to boost animal protein consumption in the Nigerian populace using an unconventional feedstuff –pineapple wine sediment (PWS) which is a waste product of the winery. In the study, PWS was used to evaluate the growth performance and apparent nutrient digestibility of grower pigs using 32 Large White x Landrace strains of pigs with average initial weight of 32 ± 0.07kg. Four treatment diets coded T1, T2, T3 and T4 replicated 3 times were formulated to replace maize at 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% levels, respectively and the study lasted 35 days. The result of this study indicated that the control group (T10%) has the highest nitrogen free extract (NFE) nutrient digestibility (93.40%) than grower pigs on PWS based diets which ranged between (79.31-85.27%) and marginal significant differences (p<0.05) existed between the treatment means. Pigs could be fed up to 30% PWS in the diet without compromising growth performance and nutrient digestibility.