The effects of maize cob meal based diets on the serum biochemistry of weaner pigs

Abstract

Twenty four weaner pigs aged 56 days and weighing 8.00±0.25 kg, on the average at were used to study the effect of feeding maize-cob-meal diet on serum-biochemistry of weaner pigs. The pigs were divided into four treatment groups, each consisting of six pigs. Four treatment diets were formulated to contain 0%, 10, 20, and 30% maize cob meal and assigned to each of these groups. The pigs were fed their respective diets in a complete randomized design. The result showed that the serum sodium values of pigs fed 30% diet was higher than that of pigs fed the 10,
20, and the control 0% diets. However, there were no significant differences (p>0.05) between the treatment groups in serum sodium values. The serum potassium level was higher in weaner pigs fed 30% maize-cob-meal diet, however, this did not differ significantly (p>0.05) from 10, 20, and 0% diets groups, in serum potassium values. The serum chloride, bicarbonate and phosphorus values were similar (p> 0.05) between treatment groups (p>0.05). However, serum urea was higher in the 30% treatment group, while blood cholesterol values were similar among the treatment groups. Other values such as albumen, globulin and white blood cells count remained similar among the treatment groups, while serum protein was found to be significantly higher (p<0.05) in the control group. These results suggested that maize cob meal has no adverse effect on serum biochemistry, of weaner pigs.

Keywords: Maize cob meal, weaner pigs, serum biochemistry, feed