Journal of Animal Sciences and Livestock Production Открытый доступ

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Performance and Blood Constituents of Crossbred Weaned Pigs As Affected By Mixed Sawdust Based Diets

Ogunbode AA*, Adebola AI, Olalere OE

The blood Food feed competition between human and animals has necessitated farmers to turn to alternative feed resources such as mixed sawdust. Thus the effects of diets containing graded level of mixed sawdust on performance and blood indices of pigs was evaluated using eighteen (18) crossbred (Large white x Landrace) weaned pigs that were randomly assigned into three (3) experimental groups of six replicates each. The mixed sawdust was incorporated into the diets using a completely randomized design. There were significant (p<0.05) variations in performance parameters and blood indices. Performance parameters measured were feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio. Feed intake was highest in T₁ (822.19 kg) while the lowest value recorded was obtained in pig fed diet 3 (822.7 kg). The best feed conversion ratio (1.80) was obtained in pigs fed diet 3 (10% sawdust). At the end of the feeding trial, blood samples were collected from two animals per treatment for blood analyses. The results show that there was significant (P<O.O5) difference on hemoglobin, packed cell volume, red blood cell and white blood cells while white blood cell differentials count show no significant (p>0.05) variation. Pigs fed diets containing 10% mixed sawdust had significantly (P<0.05) higher hemoglobin, packed cell volume, red blood cells and white blood cell. Inclusion of mixed sawdust in the diet significantly (P<0.05) decreased the white blood cell differential counts when compared with the control diet. There were no significant (p>0.05) differences in the biochemical analysis of the pigs fed mixed sawdust based diet. It was concluded that mixed sawdust can be included in the diets of pigs up to 10% without any deleterious effect on the performance and blood indices of pigs.