Utilization Of Diets Containing Cashew-Nut Reject Meal By Weaner Pigs

Abstract

A trial was conducted to assess the performance and digestibility of weaner pigs fed diets containing cashew nut reject meal (CNM). A control diet was formulated without cashew nut reject meal while two other diets were also formulated to contain either 50g or 100g/kg diet. The CNM replaced soybean meal in the control diet and the three diets were isocaloric and isoproteinous. Twelve six weeks old weaner pips (7.5 ± 0.89kg) were assigned on weight equalization basis to the three dietary treatments. Records of performance and some haematological parameters were taken. The digestibility of dry matter and the proximate fractions of feed were also determined. Feed intake of pigs on the CNM diets were lower (P<0.05) than those in the control group but there were no significant effect (P>0.05) of CNM inclusion on weight gain and feed: gain ratio. Protein efficiency ratio and apparent protein digestibilitv were highest in the soybean meal control diets. Pigs fed CNM diets had higher creatinine levels in their serum compared with the control diet. There were no significant differences among the dietary treatments for total protein, albumin, globulin, urea and cholesterol. It was concluded that CNM can be included in the diets of weaner pigs to replace soyabean meal up to 10% level with little or no deleterious effect on rate of gain.

Keywords: Cashew nut meal, weaner pigs