Solid-state fermentation improves the nutritive value of grated cassava roots and palm kernel cake mix for growing pigs

The increasing need to transform the abundant agro-industrial by-products into livestock feed materials is limited by the high contents of non-starch polysaccharides such as cellulose and mannan. In this study, the potential of solid-state fermentation to enhance the nutritive value of a mixture of grated cassava roots and palm kernel cake for pigs was evaluated. Solid state fermented mixture of grated cassava roots and palm kernel cake was used to replace maize in diets of growing pigs and compared to a negative control in which maize was replaced with a blend of cassava meal and palm kernel cake in a ratio of 1:1. Data was collected on weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio; carcass and meat quality attributes. The live weights of boars and gilts fed diets containing the fermented mixture of grated cassava roots and palm kernel cake (38.07 and 37.86 Kg) were similar to (p>0.05) those fed maize based diets (37.94 and 36.93 Kg) but superior (p<0.05) to those fed diets containing CSM-PKC (33.22 and 31.92 Kg). Similar trends were also found for the weight gain and feed conversion ratio. The cost of feed per kg weight gain was lowest among boars fed FCP based diets (N378.53) which resulted to higher profit margin and highest among gilts fed diets containing CSM-PKC. It is therefore concluded that solid state fermentation is an effective tool for enhancing the nutritive value of mixture of grated cassava roots and palm kernel cake for swine feeding.