Effect of feeding chayote (Sechium edule) meal on growth performance and nutrient utilization in indigenous pig (Zovawk) of Mizoram

Experimental animals and design

The experimental animals used were an indigenous breed of pigs found in Mizoram, locally called Zovawk. Zovawk is small type local pigs. Males are bigger than females and can attain full growth in 3 years and weigh as much as 60-70 kg, while the females may be as much as 50-55 kg in live weight. The body is stout with a short neck. The abdomen is large and can sometimes touch the ground, while standing which conform an arch back. The rump region is smooth and the tail is a long bearing switch with long hairs. 24 indigenous breed of pigs of average body weights were allocated randomly into 4 treatment groups (G₁, G₂, G₃, and G₄) and housed in the well-ventilated animal shed. A provision for feeding individually twice a day was arranged. Fresh drinking water was provided at all times. The duration of the feeding trial was 90 days.

Dietary treatment

A Grower–Finisher ration was prepared [6]. This mixture was considered as a Standard Concentrate mixture (CM). The ingredient composition of the standard CM was yellow maize 55%, wheat bran 20%, groundnut cake 16%, fish meal 7%, mineral mixture 1.5%, and common salt 0.5%. Three types of rations that are iso-nitrogenous to the standard CM_S were prepared for feeding to the three different groups (G₂, G₃, and G₄) of animals. Chayote meal was used to replace standard CM (pig grower ration) at 0% (G₁), 20% (G₂), 30% (G₃), and 40% (G₄). The chayote meal consisted of the fruits and leaves of S. edule mixed in the ratio of 4:1. This total mixture was cooked for 30 min before feeding to the animals.

Experimental procedure

After a provision of environmental and dietary adaptation period of 10 days, a 90-day feeding trial was conducted. During this period, the daily dry matter (DM) intake was recorded. The body weight of the animals was recorded before the start of the feeding trial and at 7 days interval during the experimental period. A digestion trial of 5 days was conducted by taking 3 animals from each group. Feeds offered and residues left were recorded daily during the digestion trial. Feces voided daily by the individual animal were weighed separately in previously weighed containers. The amount of feces collected at 24 h was quantified and representative samples were taken daily for aliquoting in the laboratory. Representative samples of each of the concentrate feed ingredients, chayote fruits, leaves, and meal used in the experiment, residual feeds, and fecal matter were analyzed in the laboratory for proximate principles as per the method described by AOAC [7], Fiber fractions as per the method described by Goering and Soest [8] and calcium as per the method described by Talapatra et al. [9].

Feed intake

From the perusal of the Table-3, it is observed that the average DM intake (g/head/day) was 1263.27±212.18, 1115.97±153.87, 970.71±144.35, and 1055.69±113.83 for G₁, G₂, G₃, and G₄, respectively. The DM that the feed intake (kg/pig/day) was 1.33, 1.45, 1.36, and 1.25, respectively, for 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% supplementation of cottonseed cake in the standard concentrate diet [13]. However, statistical analysis of the data revealed that the DM intake of feed by pigs of different groups did not differ significantly (p>0.05). The numerical reduction of DM intake in experimental groups may be attributed to more voluminous nature of the cooked chayote meal. The high moisture content of the experimental feed rendered it quite voluminous during feeding, which might have triggered the satiety center of the brain before the actual DM requirement of the animal was met [14], on incorporating ajar seed kernel in the diet of crossbred pigs, also observed the feed intake was 1.7 kg/day. Slight variations with the present observation may be due to breed differences as the animals used in the present study were small, non-descriptive type of pigs.

Growth performance

The body weight changes of the experimental pigs during the 14 weeks of experimental period has been depicted in Figure-1, and the performance of the local pigs fed on chayote meal as replacement of standard CM is presented in Table-4. It was observed that the average body weight gain was highest (21.22 ± 3.73 kg) in G₁ and lowest in G₃ (16.43±2.42 kg) for the experimental period of 90 days. The values for feed conversion ratio (FCR) observed during the experiment were 5.42±0.44, 4.93±0.17, 5.38±0.05, and 5.74±0.53 for G₁, G₂, G₃, and G₄, respectively. This was in agreement with Keoboualapheth and Mikled [15], who reported that 10%, 20%, and 30% of the rice bran replacement by Stylosanthes guianensis CIAT 184 foliage resulted in similar FCR. The close similarity may be attributed to the possibility of breed resemblance as an indigenous pig breed of Thailand was used in their study. Comparatively poor FCR was observed with the increasing replacement of CM with unconventional feedstuffs. In the present study, there was an increasing tendency of feed conversion efficiency values when higher amount of chayote meal was fed. This tendency was also observed by Halimani et al. [16] who fed Acacia leaf meals on growing Large White pigs. Pigs fed diets including leaf meals have been shown to have low nitrogen retention, which could explain the decline in weight gain [17]. The average daily gain (ADG) (kg) of the experimental animals in the present study was 0.24±0.04, 0.23±0.03, 0.18±0.02, and 0.18±0.02 for G₁, G₂, G₃, and G₄, respectively. Kumaresan et al. [18] observed that the ADG of nondescript local pigs of Mizoram in traditional backyard production system was 0.12 kg, which is parallel to the value observed during the experiment. It is evident that in most of the experiments the ADG of the animals fed standard CM was higher as compared to those that are fed with replacement of unconventional feedstuffs. In rural areas where availability of good quality feedstuffs is limited due to various problems, the condition can influence the quality and quantity of pig feed which subsequently influences the ADG of pigs [19, 20]. The values for ADG in animals fed chayote meal were comparable to the findings of Sotola [21] in which the ADG was 0.28 kg. The slight variation may be due to breed differences, feed composition, environmental factors, or other physiological parameters.

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Figure-1

Weekly body weight changes (kg) of different treatment groups.

The authors express their gratitude to the Dean, College of Veterinary Sciences & Animal Husbandry, Central Agricultural University, Selesih, Aizawl & All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP on pig) for providing the facilities and necessary funds for conducting this experiment.