Effect of Enzyme Treated Cassava Peel Meal Based Diets on Growth Performance and Nutrient Digestibility of Weaner Pigs

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of weaner-grower pigs fed diets containing 0 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 % levels of cassava peel meal treated with 0.035g Natuzyme®/100g CPM. Sixteen (16) pure bred male Landrace weaner-grower pigs, averaging 13.33kg were allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design such that each pig was housed and fed individually as a replicate. Four experimental diets T1, T2, T3 and T4 were formulated and 0 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 % maize was replaced with Natuzyme® treated cassava peel meal and fed for a period of 42days. At the end of the feeding trial, two pigs from each dietary treatment were randomly selected and starved for 24hours; faecal samples were collected for seven days, oven dried, weighed and sampled for digestibility analysis. Final weight, feed intake, weight gain and feed cost per kg live weight gain of pigs fed test diets decreased (p<0.05) while, feed conversion ratio increased (p<0.05) compared with the control. Nutrient digestibility of dry matter, crude fibre, crude protein, ash and nitrogen free extract decreased (p<0.05) while ether extract digestibility increased (p>0.05). 100% maize replacement with CPM treated with 0.035g of Natuzyme® in 100g of feed for weaner-grower pigs proved cheaper though with a slow growth rate.