Effect of feeding water soaked or cooked tamarind seed kernel on growth, nutrient utilization and carcass characteristics of pigs

Twenty four barrows consisting 12 each of indigenous and crossbred (Large White Yorkshire x indigenous) were divided into four equal groups and fed finisher ration ad libitum containing maize (R-1), raw tamarind seed kernel (TSK, R-2), water soaked TSK (R-3) or cooked TSK (R-4). The digestibility (%) of crude protein (P<0.05) and nitrogen free extract (P<0.01) was higher accompanying a higher (P<0.05) daily retention of nitrogen in barrows fed R-1 and R-3 compared to those fed R-2 and R-4. The average daily gain was higher (P<0.05) in R-1 and R-3 fed barrows and the feed/kg gain was lower (P<0.01) in R-1 than in R-2 or R-4 fed barrows. The crossbred barrows exhibited comparatively higher digestibility of nutrients, nitrogen retention accompanying a superior growth performance when compared to indigenous barrows irrespective of dietary treatments. The carcass characteristics were not significantly influenced by the dietary treatments. It was concluded that physical processing of TSK in terms of water soaking would constitute one of the means to improve its nutritive value for barrows. However, further studies are needed to fractionate various non-starch polysaccharide content of the TSK, optimize the temperature for gelatinization of its starch and its effect on gut viscosity for improving the efficiency of utilization of this low cost unconventional feed resource in the diet of pigs.