Nutrient digestibility and egg production of laying hens fed graded levels of biodegraded palm kernel meal

A 20-week feeding trial involving 72 Isa brown-laying birds, in a completely randomized design, evaluated the nutrient digestibility and egg production of layers fed diets containing biodegraded palm kernel meal (PKM) at dietary levels of 20 per cent undegraded and 20, 30 and 40 per cent biodegraded PKM, respectively. Biodegradation slightly improved proximate and detergent fibre components compared to the undegraded sample. Among the fibre fractions, hemicellulose was most degraded, whereas acid detergent lignin was least. Proximate component digestibility was similar among the diets except at 40 per cent levels. With the detergent fibre component, increasing the level of the biodegraded PKM caused a significant difference (

THE EFFECT OF SUBSTITUTING MAIZE WITH GRADED LEVEL OF BISCUIT WASTE ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE, NUTRIENT UTILIZATION, CARCASS COMPOSITION, HAEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF AFRICAN CATFISH Clarias gariepinus (BURCHELL 1822)

The effect of replacing maize with biscuit waste (BW) in the diet of Clarias gariepinus was evaluated in a 70-day feeding trial. Four isonitrogenous diets were prepared in which biscuit waste was used to replace maize at a rate of 50, 75 and 100% respectively. A diet without biscuit waste served as control. Each treatment had three replicates stocked with 10 catfish juveniles per tank with (mean initial body weight16.44±2.21g) per fish. The performance of the fish fed test diets was compared with fish fed a maize-based control diet containing 42.94% crude protein. The fish on the test diets performed better than the fish fed control diet with respect to mean weight gain (95.12±2.78g in BW 75 Vs 78.67±3.74g in control) and specific growth rate (3.04±0.04 %day-1 Vs 2.79±0.07 %day-1). Feed intake, feed conversion ratio and the protein efficiency ratio were not significantly different between test diets and the control. The inclusion of biscuit waste significantly improved (P<0.05) crude protein retention in the fish carcass. All the haematological parameters increased as a result of BW inclusion, the converse was however observed in cholesterol and triglyceraldehyde. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in the cost of feed intake and value of fish.Â

Effect of Crude Palm Oil Incorporation on Growth, Survival, Feed Efficiency, and Body Composition of Heterobranchus longifilis

International audienceAn 8-week feeding trial was carried out to determine the effect of increasing dietary palm oil levels on African catfish juvenile growth and nutrient utilization. Six isonitrogenous diets were formulated to contain 0.5% to 15% crude palm oil with dietary lipid levels ranging from 5% to 20%. Growth performance and protein utilization efficiency of African catfish responded in a positive manner to palm oil addition up to 9% (diet 14% lipid). No further improvement in growth was observed with higher levels of palm oil in the diets, and lower survival was observed with inclusion of 15% palm oil (diet 20% lipid). Whole-body lipid content increased when fish were fed with increasing levels of dietary lipid. Under our experimental conditions, the best growth rate and nutrient utilization were observed with the inclusion of 9% crude palm oil in the diets for African catfis