Performance and nutrient digestibility of crossbred weaned pigs fed raw pride of barbados (Caesalpina pulcherrima) seed meal

Abstract

Deficit of conventional feed resources in meeting increased demand has led to hike in their prices culminating in soaring cost of livestock feed. This has necessitated the search for cheap and easily available alternatives. Pride of barbados seed which constitute a waste has potential of becoming a cheap and easily available feed resource. Performance and nutrient digestibility of dietary inclusion of raw pride of barbados seed meal was evaluated in an eight week feeding trial. Atotal of sixteen crossbred (Large White x Landrace) weaned pigs of eight weeks of age were weighed and allotted to four dietary treatments with four pigs each being a replicate in a completely randomized design. Diet 1 (control) was without raw pride of barbados seed meal while 5%, 10% and 15% of virgin raw pride of barbados were included in diets 2,3 and 4 respectively. Weekly weight gain, daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio and nutrient digestibility of raw pride of barbados seed meal was also determined. Results revealed a significant average final body weight of 16.75kg (diet 3) to 24.50kg (diet 4).The pigs fed 15% raw pride of barbados had the highest feed intake of 137.20kg in diet 4 while the lowest feed intake was obtained in pigs fed 10% (diet 3) inclusion level of raw pride of barbados. Pigs maintained on the control diet had the best feed conversion (7.60kg) while the pigs fed diet 3 had the lowest feed conversion ratio (8.93kg). Crude protein, ether extract and dry matter digestibility was highest at T4 (84.15%, 80.21% and 86.70%) respectively while the least values (68.71%, 65.75% and 71.10% was obtained in T2 and T3 respectively. This study concluded that 15% inclusion of raw pride of barbados in the diets of crossbred weaned pigs had no deleterious effect on performance and nutrient digestibility of pigs.