Effects of State of Boar on Nutrients Digestibility, Nitrogen Balance, Backfat Measurements, Cut-up Parts and Organ Weights of Finishing Pigs

A study was conducted to determine the nutrients digestibility, backfat composition, cut-up parts and organ weights of intact and castrated finishing pigs. Forty eight Large White male pigs with initial average weight of 36.82±0.45 kg were randomly assigned to two treatments with each treatment consisting of three replicates of eight pigs each. Twenty four of the experimental animals were castrated while the remaining twenty four were left intact. Four pigs per replicate were selected and housed in metabolic cages to determine nutrient digestibility and carcass evaluation was performed when the pigs in each experimental group attained an average weight of 70 kg in order to verify the backfat composition, cut-up parts and organ weights. The experiment was arranged in a Completely Randomised Design. Dry matter intake, excreted faeces/dry matter intake, dry matter digestibility, crude protein digestibility, nitrogen intake, absorption and retention were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by state of boar. Castrated boars had higher mean values in these parameters except in excreted faeces/dry matter. Intact boars had higher significant (P<0.05) mean values in liver (1.98%), kidney (0.20%) and heart (0.22%) weights in comparison with the corresponding values (1.57, 0.12 and 0.12%, respectively) recorded for castrated boars. Subcutaneous fat depth and fat free index were significantly (P