Authors : O.T.Irekhore , A.M. Bamgbose and G.A. Olubadewa
Abstract: An investigation was carried out into the use of cassava peel meal as energy source for growing pigs. Four experimental diets were formulated using graded levels 0, 10, 20 and 30% cassava peel meal as replacement for maize on a weight for weight basis. The diets were neither iso-nitrogenous nor iso-caloric. Sixteen growing pigs of an average range 12.0 to 12.5 kg were randomly allocated to 4 dietary treatments in a completely randomized fashion with each treatment replicated twice. The diet containing 0% cassava peel meal (control diet) was tagged diet I and fed to pigs in treatment I while diets containing 10, 20 and 30% cassava peel meal, tagged diets 2, 3 and 4, respectively were fed to pigs in treatments 2, 3 and 4, respectively. The pigs were fed on an ad-libitum basis and data were collected on them for a period of 8 weeks. Results show that the inclusion of cassava peel meal up to a level of 30% in the diets of growing pigs did not have any significant (p>0.05) effects on their performance. The cassava peel meal diets gave similar daily weight gains and feel conversion ratios as the control diet while there were slight differences in feed intake. However, feed cost per kilogramme weight gain was significantly (p<0.05) reduced with the inclusion of cassava peel meal in the diets. Cassava peel meal could therefore be included in the diets of growing pigs up to level of 30% to reduce feed cost without any detrimental effect on performance.
O.T.Irekhore , A.M. Bamgbose and G.A. Olubadewa , 2006. Utilization of Cassava Peel Meal as Energy Source for Growing Pigs. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 5: 849-851.