Abstract

Performance characteristics and carcass yield obtained from barrows (castrated male pigs) fed a diet in which dried poultry waste (DPW) totally replaced palm kernel cake (PKC) was investi-gated. The DPW diet was inferior in terms of total weight gained (30.8 kg as opposed to 34.2 kg for the PKC diet). The daily weight gain and efficiency of feed utilization were also better in the PKC diet (610.70 g versus 550 g and 0.318 versus 0.288, respectively).         The carcass yield is 43.57 and 41.39 kg in the PKC and DPW diets, respectively. However, the DPW diet showed a lower feed cost per kilogram of the diet and gave higher monetary returns per kilogram of meat produced. Also this study revealed that using DPW to fatten pigs up to 60 kg resulted in a net saving of N196.00 per pig. The inclusion of DPW at this level in the growers’ ration for pigs could therefore be beneficial in terms of reduction of feed cost and higher returns per kilogram of meat produced.

Key words: Performance, dried poultry waste, carcass yields, barrows.