Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Growing Pigs Fed Diets Containing Urea-Molasses Treated Rice Husk as a Replacement for Wheat Offal

Abstract

The use of non-conventional fibrous feed stuff in pig nutrition to reduce cost requires strategies to increase its utilisation due to its low nutrient content and poor digestibility. This study investigated the effect of graded levels of urea-molasses treated rice husk (UMTRH) as replacement for wheat offal in diet of growing pigs. A total of 60 pigs of about 8 -10 kg weight were used to investigate the growth performance and carcass characteristics. Pigs were allotted on weight equalisation basis into five dietary treatments. The pigs were randomly allotted into 15 pens and each treatment contained 12 pigs consisting of 3 replicates of 4 pigs each. The diets formulated consists of a standard basal diet Control; (wheat offal based without treated rice husk) and treated rice husk was used to replace wheat offal at 25, 50, 75, and 100% replacement levels in a standardized grower pigs diet. Performance data was collected at the end of 8th and 16th week of the study while carcass measurement was done at the end of 16th week. Cut parts and organs were expressed as % of live weight (% LW). Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance in a completely randomized design.At 8 weeks, total weight gain (TWG) was higher (P < 0.05) for pigs fed control diet (22.25 kg) and those fed diets containing 25% (22.17 kg) and 50% (21.42 kg) UMTRH than those fed diet with 100% (19.42 kg) UMTRH. 25% inclusion of UMTRH in the diet of pigs resulted in better (P < 0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR). At 16 weeks, the inclusion 25% UMTRH resulted in improved (P < 0.05) weight gain comparable to the control while pigs fed diet with 100% UMTRH had reduced (P < 0.05) weight gain (21.00 kg). Pigs fed diet with 100% UMTRH had reduced (P < 0.05) dressing percentage (67.59%) compared to that of the control. It was concluded that inclusion of 75% UMTRH supports weight gain of pigs like that of the control diet with comparable dressing percentage.