Influence Of Corn Cobs Inclusion In Pig Diets On Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics And Blood Parameters

ABSTRACT

Most pork produced in Ghana tend to be very fatty as most famers do not feed balanced diets to their animals because of the high cost of feed ingredients. High levels of cholesterol and fat from animal products have been associated with coronary heart diseases and stroke in humans and fear of this has led to some instances of negative impact on acceptance of pork for human consumption. Dietary manipulation to reduce fat and cholesterol in pork, if feasible will therefore be important. A 16-week trial was conducted to determine the influence of feeding corn cobs to grower pigs on carcass quality and fat content. A total of 40 Large White grower pigs with a mean live weight of 27 ± 5 and consisting of 20 females and 20 males were selected for the feeding trial. The 40 pigs were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments i.e. 0% corncob, 15% corncob without enzyme, 15% corncob with enzyme, 25% corncob without enzyme and 25% corncob with enzyme and labelled treatments A, B, C, D and E, respectively. All the five diets were iso-nitrogenous. Each treatment consisted of four females and four males with four replicates per treatment and two animals per replicate in a completely randomised design. Pigs were fed on a restricted basis, a daily amount of feed equivalent to 5% of the individual live weight. Water was provided ad libitum. The pigs were individually weighed weekly and slaughtered on attaining a live weight of 70 ± 5kg and their carcass characteristics measured. Data collected indicated no significant (p ˃ 0.05) difference in the initial live weight, average daily gain and total feed intake among treatments but there was significant (p ˂ 0.05) difference in final live weight, average daily weight gain, total weight gain and feed conversion ratio. There were no health-related problems that could be attributable to the inclusion of the graded level of the corn cob with or without enzyme. Although the feed cost/kg of the control was higher than the tested diets, the feed cost/kg gain were similar (p ˃ 0.05) among the five dietary treatments. The corn cobs inclusion had influence on the carcass characteristics. There was a significant (p < 0.05) difference between the control diet (A) and the corn cobs containing

v

diets (B, C, D, and E) for both back fat and P2 measurement. The values obtained for the measurement of the major joints were not significantly (p ˃ 0.05) different among treatments except rump streak.

The dietary treatments did not have any significant (p > 0.05) impact on the various haematological parameters measured. The biochemical parameters that were measured showed significant (p < 0.05) differences among treatments, with the pigs on the corn cobs diet having the lowest values except for total protein and globulin which were not significantly (p > 0.05) different among treatments.

It was concluded that corn cobs have some potential for use as a dietary ingredient and it can be included up to 25% in pig diets without compromising health, growth performance, carcass and blood and also reduced cost of producing lean pork.