Abstract
This study was conducted on a private farm at Wallerfield, Eastern Trinidad using 30 crossbred (Large White x Landrace) piglets with an initial live weight of 11.9 (± 0.8) kg. A completely randomized design was used in which the 30 piglets were randomly allocated to five diets. In phase 1 of the study, pigs were offered starter diets and in phase 2 they were offered grower diets. In each phase five dietary treatments were used: T0= positive control (commercial pig starter / grower); T10 = 100 g/kg dried cassava by-products; T20= 200 g/kg dried cassava by-products; T40 = 400 g/kg dried cassava by-products; T60 = 562 g/kg dried cassava by-products. The feeding trial lasted for a total of 40 days. In both the first and second feeding phases, there were no differences (P > 0.05) on animal performance in terms of final live weight (kg), average daily gain (g ADG /day), average (daily) dry matter intake (g DMI/day) and feed conversion ratio (g DMI/ g ADG) between dietary treatments. It was concluded that cassava by-products derived from the making of cassava chips for human consumption can be included in pigs’ starter and grower diet to replace maize grain. However, based on the observation of undigested cassava chips in the feces at the starter phase, finer particle sizes may improve utilization.
