Effect of replacement of maize by animal fat on growth and nutrient utilization of growing large white yorkshire pigs

In order to study the effect of replacement of maize by animal fat on growth and nutrient utilization, thirty weaned female Large White Yorkshire piglets were divided in to three groups with five replicates in each group and were maintained under identical management conditions for the period of 70 days. The piglets were randomly allocated to one of the three treatments namely T₁ (control ration), T₂ (50 per cent of maize of control ration replaced by animal fat) and T₃ (100 per cent of maize of control ration replaced by animal fat). The average daily gain and feed conversion efficiency were 813.00, 769.86, 678.43 g, and 2.80, 2.88, 3.08, respectively for three dietary treatments. The pigs of T₁ had higher (P<0.05) average body weight gain than that of other treatments. The crude fibre digestibility was higher (P<0.05) for T₁ and T₂ rations than that of T₃. The digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein and NFE was higher for T₁ ration as compared to other groups. Availability of calcium, magnesium and manganese was lowered (P<0.01) in T₃ group. It can be concluded that partial (50 per cent) replacement of the maize in the feed for pigs by animal fat did not affect the weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion efficiency and nutrient utilization.