Growth response, carcass traits and cholesterol of growing-finishing pigs fed different fibre feedstuffs based diets

The study evaluated the growth response, carcass traits and cholesterol of growing finishing pigs fed different fibre feedstuffs made up of palm kernel cake (PKC), corn bran (CB), rice bran (RB) and brewers dried grain (BDG) for twelve weeks. Sixteen cross-bred (Large White ×Hampshire) growing pigs of average weight 31.25±1.88 kg were randomly distributed into 4 experimental diets of 4 animals per treatment with each animal serving as a replicate. Diet 1 contained 40% of Corn bran (CB),while diets 2, 3 and 4 contained 40% of PKC, BDG and RB respectively. The design of the study was completely randomized design. The growth response of the animals showed significant difference (P < 0.05) on the average final weight and daily weightgain. The average final weight ranged from 55.24 to 72.11 kg with PKC based diet having the highest value and RB based diet having the least. The average daily weight gain was highest for PKC based diet (0.470 kg) and lowest (0.281kg) for RB based diet. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) ranged from 3.39 to 4.66. The carcass cholesterol which was significantly affected (p<0.05) by the dietary treatments ranged from 43.44 to 53.00 mg/100g) with PKC based diet having the least value. It can be concluded from this study that PKC was better utilized by growing/finishing pigs than the other fiber feedstuffs for growth, Carcass trait and low Carcass cholesterol.Key words: Carcass trait; Carcass Cholesterol; Growth; Fibre Feedstuff