Effect of Fishmeal Supplementation on Body Weight Gain of Weaned Pigs in Eritrea

Abstract

Two 7-week trials were carried out to examine the effect of supplementing the existing feed of weaned pigs in Eritrea with locally produced fishmeal on the body weight gain of the pigs. The diet of the weaned pigs consisted of 'bakery waste', wheat middlings and wheat bran to make 62, 22, and I5%, respectively, by air-dry weight at the beginning of the trials. In two comparative trials (Trial I and Trial 2), this diet was given to a group of 13 pigs as the control diet. In an attempt to improve the nutrient content of the feed, 90 grams of fishmeal per pig was added to the mixture of wheat middlings and wheat bran. The fishmeal-supplemented diet consisted of 62, 16.7, 11.1, and 10% of 'bakery waste', wheat middlings, wheat bran and fishmeal by air-dry weight, respectively. This was fed to 13 weaned pigs. The crude protein (ep), lysine, and threonine content in % and DE in MJ/kg of the control diet were 12.67, 0.41, 0.42 and 13.34, respectively. Supplementing with 90 grams of fishmeal per pig resulted in the composition of the diet to be 16.61,0.68,0.54% and I3.5I·MJ/kg of CP, lysine, threonine and DE, respectively. Restricted feeding was practiced with the amount of wheat middlings, wheat bran and jishmeal kept constant throughout the period of the experiment with more 'bakery waste' being used to meet the increased demand of feed with increase in body weight. 10 grams of salt and 10 grams of limestone per pig were added to the feed of each group daily. In Trial I, pigs fed the jishmeal-supplemented diet attained a growth rate of 0.29 kg per day, which was significantly (P = 0.042) higher than the 0.19 kg attained by the pigs fed the control diet. Similarly, in Trial 2, pigs supplemented with fishmeal attained a significantly higher (P = 0.003) growth rate of 0.34 kg per day compared to 0.18 kg per day for the pigs fed the control diet.

Keywords: Body weight gain, crude protein, fishmeal, lysine, pigs

Tanzania J.Agric.Sc. (2006) VOI.7No.2, 97 -104