Supplemental impact of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) hard pellet and residue pellet-based diet as a replacement for corn on the growth performance, total tract digestibility and blood profiles in pigs.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of cassava hard pellet and residue pellet-based diet as a replacement for corn on the growth performance, total tract digestibility and blood profile in pigs. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the processed cassava as replacement for corn in pigs. In Exp. 1, seventy-two weanling pigs with an average initial body weight of 6.44 ± 0.52 kg were assigned to one of the two treatments: CON, basal diet, and CHP, basal diet with cassava hard pellet for 28 days trial. The dietary inclusion of CHP had significantly decreased average daily gain of weanling pigs during d 1-14 and the overall experimental period. In addition, significant reduction was observed on gain-to-feed ratio during d 1-14, while no effect was noted on average daily feed intake. Exp. 2 was carried out for 42 days, in which 84 growing pigs were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments with 4 pigs/pen and 7 pen/treatment. The three dietary treatments were supplement with 0%, 20% and 40% of cassava. Dietary inclusion of cassava supplementation has failed to affect the growth performance and blood profile during overall experiment. In Exp. 3, a total of 96 crossbred finishing pigs were randomly assigned to one of four dietary treatments containing 25% cassava in a 2 × 2 factorial design with two different levels of energy with or without 0.1% carbohydrase for 28 days. Pigs fed 0.1% carbohydrase with high energy diet reduced average daily feed intake and increased gain-to-feed ratio compared to those fed low energy diet. However, significantly enhanced nutrient digestibility in both energy and carbohydrase groups were observed. In summary, the inclusion of cassava basal diet with 0.1% carbohydrase supplementation has beneficially enhanced the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of pigs.