EVALUATION OF THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF WHOLE CASSAVA PLANT AS A REPLACEMENT FOR MAIZE IN THE DIETS OF GROWING PIGS IN THE TROPICS

Abstract

The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of replacement of whole cassava plant meal for maize in diets on performance and blood parameters of growing pigs for eight weeks. Three diets were formulated. Diet 1 was maize based and sewed as the control. Diet 2 had 50% of maize in diet 1 replaced with whole cassava plant meal (WCPM) while diet 3 had 100% replacement of maize with WCPM. WCPM (which had a crude protein value of about 9.0%) was developed with the ratio of 2.5:1 of unpeeled cassava tuber to cassava leaves plus tender stems, while the ratio of cassava leaves to tender stems was 5:1. A total of 24 growing pigs (large white) with an initial mean weight of 20.89+0.7kg were used in this study in a completely randomized design.

There were four replicates per treatment and each replicate had two pigs. The results of this study show that average final body weight (38.83 - 41.00kg;), feed to gain ratio (2.5-3.00) and other growth parameters were not significantly (P>0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments. The haematological indices such as Red blood cell (7.07-7.39x106/mo13), Packed cell volume (40- 42.35%), Haemoglobin (13.27-1 4.00g/dl) and White blood cell were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. The serum metabolites showed no significant differences (P> 0.05) among the WCPM based diets.

The results of this study showed that the nutritive value of WCPM is sufficiently adequate to replace maize wholly or partially in the diets of growing pigs without adversely affecting growth, serum metabolites and haemotological indices.