Growth performance of pigs fed hatchery waste meal

Peter Asiedu, Ebenezer Gyamera², Gifty Ziema Bumbie¹, Doris Yaa Osei¹ and Frederick Nii Ako Odoi²

Department of Animal Production and Health, School of Agriculture and Technology, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Dormaa Campus
peter.asiedu@uenr.edu.gh
¹ Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Animal Research Institute, Achimota, Accra, Ghana
² Department of Animal Science, School of Agriculture, University of Cape Coast

Abstract

A 16-week study was conducted to evaluate the effects of replacing fish meal with hatchery waste meal (HWM) on growth performance and carcass characteristics of grower-finisher pigs. Sixty (60) Large White grower intact male pigs at an average live weight of 17.55 ± 0.01 kg were randomly allotted in equal numbers to 5 dietary treatments designated as 0% HWM, 2.5% HWM, 5.0% HWM, 7.5% HWM and 10.0% HWM. The diets were formulated to be iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous. The pigs were fed on restricted basis at 5% of the individual body weight and had free access to water. Whereas ADG by the grower- finisher pigs were best on HWM 0%, HWM 2.5% and HWM 5%, FCR and day to slaughter were best on HWM 2.5%. The data revealed that feeding HWM 7.5% (210.49 kg) and HWM 10% (210.92 kg) resulted in significantly (p < 0.05) higher total feed intake (TFI) compared to those fed 0% HWM (175.12 kg), 2.5 % HWM (172.87 kg) and 5.0 % HWM (190.49 kg). From the results of the study, it can be inferred that HWM could be included in pig diets up to 5% without any adverse effects on growth performance and carcass evaluation.

Keywords: carcass evaluation, feed conversion ratio, final body weight, feed intake, fish meal

Introduction

Consumption of fish by humans has prompted the search for alternative protein sources (AAFCO 2016). It would therefore be economically expedient to explore the use of non-conventional feed resources for animal production (NCFR), mainly agro-industrial byproducts (AIBP), which are abundant and cheap (Okai et al 2006). These are regarded as unused feed resources, little used, of less or no nutritional value for humans (Adesehinwa 2008).

The use of animal wastes or by-products has considerable significance in the diets of livestock (González-Félix et al  2011). Subsequently, researchers are currently focusing more on replacing fish meal with relatively cheap or animal protein sources (Harlıoğlu et al 2011; Yiğit et al 2012; Bulut et al 2014; Yıldırım et al 2014). One of such animal waste products is hatchery waste meal (HWM), a hatchery by-product, or waste generated from the poultry industry.

Hatchery waste meal consists of shells of hatched eggs, unhatched eggs, dead chicks, unsaleable chicks and embryonic fluids. This is partially an animal protein supplement that is readily available from hatcheries. At present, a huge quantity of hatchery waste approximately 20 tons (Djang-Fourdour 2016), is produced every year, that is not properly disposed of, adding to problems of environmental pollution (Kelleher et al 2002). Conversion of this material into a feedstuff suitable for pigs would not only reduce the pollution problem, but also make available another animal protein source of high biological value for feeding pigs.

Hatchery waste meal after processing contain about 32% crude protein, 16% ether extract, 0.9% crude fibre, 40% total ash, 11.1% nitrogen free extract, 20% calcium and 0.6% available phosphorus, with little or no Escherichia coli and Salmonella residues (Khan et al 2007). Apparent metabolisable energy (AME) of the hatchery waste by-product meal is reported to be 23.9 MJ/kg (Sung et al 2017) with an apparent amino acid availability of 73.5% (Sung and Kim 2019). The aim of this study was therefore to determine the effects of feeding processed HWM on growth performance of grower-finisher pigs.

Materials and methods

Study location

The study was carried out at the Piggery Section of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Animal Research Institute (CSIR-ARI), Katamanso, Accra. The location of the farm is in the coastal savannah zone and situated at the Adentan Metropolitan Assembly area of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The average relative humidity for the year is about 65% (mid-afternoon) and 95% (night time) while wind speed usually ranges between 8 and 16 km/h. The monthly temperature varies between 26 and 29 ^oC. The highest mean monthly temperature of 29^oC occurs during March and April while the lowest of 26^oC is in August. The zone has a bimodal rainfall pattern with the major rainy season occurring between April and July while the minor season occurs between September and October. A short dry period separates the two periods in August. The major dry season lasts from November to February (Wallace et al 2012).

Source of hatchery waste meal and its preparation for use as feed ingredient

Hatchery waste (HW) was obtained from the CSIR-Animal Research Institute’s Hatchery at Katamanso, and a private hatchery at Kodiabe in the Greater Accra Region, the NAT Hatchery. The hatchery waste (HW) comprised of unhatched eggs, infertile eggs, shells, dead-in-shells and low-grade unsalable chicks. The wastes were aggregated and boiled in water at 100ºC for 5 minutes and allowed to cool. The samples were then crushed to reduce the size of the particles to facilitate drying. The samples were then dried in a hot air oven, at 80^oC till constant weight. The dried waste was milled to form the hatchery waste meal (HWM).

Experimental diets

Five (5) diets were formulated to contain 0%, 2.5%, 5.0%, 7.5% and 10.0% HWM. They were formulated to meet all requirements for essential nutrients in grower-finisher pig diets as recommended by NRC (1998). All the diets were formulated to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous. Table 1 shows the feed ingredients, levels of inclusion and the calculated and analyzed composition of individual nutrients in the experimental diets.

Experimental animals

Sixty (60) crossbred Large White grower, entire male pigs (average live weight of 17.55 ± 0.01 kg were selected from the herd at Katamanso piggery section of the CSIR-Animal Research Institute for the feeding trial.

Design and dietary treatments

The 60 animals were randomly allocated in a completely randomized design (CRD) experiment to the 5 dietary treatments. Each treatment was replicated 5 times, with a pigs per replicate. The pigs were individually-housed in pen. The 5 dietary treatments were designated 0% HWM (Control), 2.5% HWM, 5.0% HWM, 7.5% HWM (each and 10.0% HWM inclusion as replacement for fish meal (Table 1).

Management of experimental animals

The pigs were ear tagged for easy identification. The experimental pigs were fed a daily quantity of feed equivalent to 5% of the individual live weight every morning. Water was provided ad libitum. The pigs were individually weighed weekly and the daily feed allocation adjusted accordingly for the following week.

Statistical analysis

All the data were subjected to analysis of variance using Genstat Discovery Edition (2016) to determine the effect of dietary treatments on the various parameters studied. Values of p < 0.05 were considered significant. Besides the ANOVA carried out on the classification variable (hatchery waste meal), both the average daily weight gain and feed conversion were also subjected to regression analysis using the quadratic functions. The regression model used is as indicated below:

Quadratic function

Y = cx² + bx + (1)

Y = Dependent variables (average daily gain or feed conversion)

a = intercept/ regression constant

b, c = regression coefficients of linear and quadratic terms respectively

x = independent variable (hatchery waste meal)

Coefficients of determination (R2) of the equations were used to evaluate the robustness of the functions.

Results

Body weight change in pigs, average daily gain and feed intake

Some growth performance of the grower-finisher pigs fed on the different experimental diets are presented in Table 2. The initial live weights were similar (p > 0.05) across the dietary treatments. There were also no significant (p >0.05) differences in the average final body weights of the pigs fed the five experimental diets.

Significant (p < 0.05) differences in ADG were observed between the control and some of the HWM-based diets (0.48 and 0.49 kg live weight gain/ day), at 7.5% and 10% inclusion levels respectively. Maximum absolute weight gain (0.58) was observed in pigs fed the 2.5% HWM diet; but differences were not significant (p > 0.05) from the control and 5.0% HWM diet.

The data on total feed intake (TFI) of pigs fed the experimental diets revealed that the groups fed on 7.5% HWM (210.49 kg) and 10% HWM (210.92) were significantly (p < 0.05) higher compared with those on 0% HWM (175.12 kg), 2.5% HWM (172.87 kg) and 5.0% HWM (190.49 kg). Non-significant (p > 0.05) differences were found among the pigs fed the control diet and the groups fed 2.5% HWM and 5% HWM diets.

Feed conversion ratios (FCR) and days to slaughter

The FCR for pigs fed treatment 0% HWM, 2.5% HWM and 5%, HWM were similar (p > 0.05) but significantly (p < 0.05) better than those fed the 7.5% HWM and 10.0% HWM diets. Pigs fed 2.5% HWM diet took a significantly shorter (p < 0.05) period to attain the target slaughter weight compared to those on the control (0% HWM) diet which in turn was significantly shorter (p < 0.05) than those fed the 7.5% HWM and 10% HWM diets. Figure 1 and 2 shows prediction equations for predicting ADG and FCR respectively using quadratic functions.

Figure 1. Quadratic regression equations for predicting average daily gain (ADG) using hatchery waste meal (HWM)	Figure 2. Quadratic regression equations for predicting feed conversion ratio (FCR) using hatchery waste meal (HWM)

Discussion

Average daily gain and feed intake, body weight change, Feed conversion ratios (FCR) and days to slaughter

Hatchery waste meal as an ingredient used to be prohibited in the animal feed industry. Currently, however, hatchery waste meal is allowed in many countries in Africa, the United States, Republic of Korea and the European Union (AAFCO 2016). Before conducting the present study, microbial analyses on HWM were done, and were comparable to results by Lee et al (2018) which indicated the materials were free from any contamination.

Feed intake values similar to those recorded in this study have been reported earlier when pigs were fed diets containing HWM (Khan and Bhatti 2002). The fact that there were no significant differences in average daily feed intake by pigs fed all the experimental diets compared to the control diet indicate that HWM had comparable protein content, quality and energy level as FM. The results again show that HWM up to 10% level of inclusion does not appear to affect feed palatability. This trend is similar to results obtained by (Sathishkumar and Prabakara 2008), but at variance with results by (Shahriar et al 2008) who indicated that the incorporation of broiler hatchery waste resulted in lower feed intake in pigs.

In a related study, while (Abiola et al 2012) observed that ADG was not significantly (p > 0.05) affected by the inclusion of varying levels of HWM in diets fed to laying hens. (Orozco-Hernandez et al 2003) reported that rations containing HWM elicited a better performance in terms of weight gain and feed efficiency in broilers, fed up to 12% HWM than in others fed similar amounts of fish meal. Abiola (2010) on the other hand indicated that using HWM in pig diets resulted in a decrease in average daily live weight gain whereas Abiola et al (2012) indicated that pigs could generally be fed HWM in place of FM without affecting growth performances and survivability.

Feed conversion ratio is the feed consumed per unit weight gain and therefore measures how efficient pigs are at converting feed consumed into meat. The FCR of pigs fed the 2.5% HWM diet was better compared to the control diet (0% HWM). This could be attributed to differences in the composition and likely protein sparring effects and subsequently, on feed utilization (Acikgoz et al 2003). The FCR obtained in this study could indicate the possibility of differences in the availability of the nutrients in the diets, predominantly amino acids and energy in relation to the requirements of pigs (Gore et al 1990; Adeniji and Adesiyan 2007).

Rhule et al (2006) observed that pigs fed cassava-based diets took an average of 131 days to attain the live weight of 70 kg. Amoah (2010) also recorded a duration of 115 days when grower-finisher pigs were fed a cereal-based diet supplemented with a direct-fed microbial (over initial live weight range of 10.38 kg to a final body weight of 70 ± 0.3 kg). However, this study shows that pigs fed dietary treatments with 0% HWM and 5% HWM took an average of 96 days to attain the target live weight which is similar to findings of Ziema (2017) who reported days to slaughter values of 79 to 92 when pigs were fed a corn cob-based diet.

The coefficients of determination (R2) were used as measures of the goodness of fit for the model used in predicting ADG and FCR from HWM. The R2 values were generally higher for the regression equations. This result is in agreement with the reports of earlier authors who gave ADG and FCR as good HWM predictors of Ashanti black pigs (Daffour-Oduro and Naazie 2010 and Tsegaye et al (2013).

Conclusion

The results of the study showed that HWM is similar in proximate composition to fish meal.

Hatchery waste meal is high in crude protein and calcium and is comparable to fish meal.

From the results of the study, it can be shown that HWM could be included in pig diets up to 5 % without any adverse effects on growth performance.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the immediate past Director, Prof. E. K. Adu of the CSIR - Animal Research Institute and the Animal Science Department, UCC and the staff of the Quality Control and Microbial Laboratories of the CSIR-Animal Research Institute for their technical support.

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