Effects on performance of replacing fish meal by Tra catfish by products in the diets of growing pigs 

Tran Trung Tuan and Brian Ogle*

Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources,
Angiang University (AGU), Angiang province, Vietnam
tttuan@agu.edu.vn
Department of Animal Nutrition and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,
PO Box 7024, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden

Abstract

The effects of diets with four different protein sources were determined with respect to average daily gain, feed conversion ratio, back fat thickness and economic benefits in growing pigs. The four treatments were based on cassava root meal as energy source: A control treatment (FM) was cassava root meal plus marine fish meal; Treatment BM was cassava root meal plus catfish broken meat by-product meal; Diet OE was cassava root meal plus oil extracted catfish by-product meal and Diet BH was cassava root meal plus bone and head catfish by-product meal. The four diets were fed to twenty four growing pigs in a Complete Randomized Block design with four treatments and six replications, and the experimental unit was one pig.

There were differences among the diets in the average daily gain (ADG), dry matter intake (DMI), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and back fat thickness, with a descending trend from BM, OE, FM and BH (P<0.05). The DMI, ADG, back fat thickness and iodine number were highest in BM (1955 g, 629 g, 13.7 mm and 52.8, respectively) (P<0.05) and lowest in BH (182 g, 925 g, 7.81 mm and 40.1, respectively) (P<0.05). FCR in BM was the lowest (3.13 kg/kg gain and highest in BH 5.31 kg/kg gain) (P<0.05). The feed cost per kg weight gain of pigs in BM was lowest (P<0.05). The gross income and net benefit per pig of BM were higher than the other diets (P<0.05). It can be concluded that the growth performance and economic benefit of the treatment with catfish broken meat by-product meal (BM) were highest, followed by OE, FM and BH. 

Key words: Average daily gain, feed conversion ratio, backfat thickness, iodine number, growing pigs, fish meal, broken meat, oil extracted, and bone and head catfish by-product meals.