Liver enzymes and histo-morphology of pigs fed fermented and enzymesupplemented cassava peels meal based diets *

Abstract

Fresh cassava peels were collected, fermented for four days and sundried for 3-5 days. It was ground and used to replace maize in the grower and finisher diets. A group of 27 weaner gilts (Largewhite x Duroc), aged 8 weeks and weighing 10.61±0.27kg were fed the diets. The weaner gilts were allotted to three treatments comprising T₁ (control), T₂ (fermented CPM) and T₃ (fermented CPM + maxigrainR enzyme) in a completely randomized design. The diets were given at 4% of their live body weights daily throughout the experiment. At week 28 of age, each was bled of 5mL fresh blood via venipuncture and serum was harvested for serum analyses for alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Aspartate aminotransferase (AST). Data were analysed using one way analysis of variance and where difference in means existed, it was separated with Duncan’s Multiple Range Test. Results showed that the ALT of pigs on T₂ diet was significantly different [p<0.05] from those on T₃ and T₁ whereas the ALP of T₃ pigs was significantly different [p<0.05] from those of T₁ and T₂. However, the AST of the pigs had no significant difference [p>0.05] among all the treatment groups. There were normal liver histoarchitectures of pigs in all the treatment groups. Therefore, fermented cassava peels with or without enzyme supplementation has no deleterious effect on the liver serum enzymes and histo-architecture of pigs. Fermentation of cassava peels is therefore recommended to pig farmers as substitute for energy ingredient in the diet.

Keywords: Pigs, Fermented cassava peels, maxigrainR enzyme, Liver enzymes, Histo-morphology