EFFECTS OF REPLACEMENT OF SUGARCANE PEEL WITH CASSAVA PEEL MEAL ON THE CARCASS AND ORGANS CHARACTERISTICS OF GRASSCUTTERS

Abstract

A 90 Day feeding trial was conducted to determine the effect of replacing cassava peel meal with sugarcane peel meal in the diets of grasscutters on the carcass characteristics. Twenty growing grasscutters with an average initial weight of 556 g were used for the experiment. Four grasscutters were allotted to each treatment in a completely randomized design. Five diets were formulated to contain 100, 75, 50, 25 and 0.0% of sugarcane meal and 0.0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of cassava peel meal. Proximate analysis were carried out on the test ingredients and experimental diets. The results of proximate analysis of the experimental diets showed that crude protein ranged from 14.25-14.45%,while the Metabolizable energy values were 2710.232805.21 kcal/kg. The result of the experiment showed that, carcass characteristics parameters evaluated differed (P < 0.05) among the treatments except the singed weight. The visceral organs measured were not significantly (P > 0.05) different. The result of this experiment showed that cassava peel meal can replace sugarcane peel meal up to 100% in the diets of grasscutters without any deleterious effect on their carcass components. However, based on this study, 25% level of cassava peel replacement, though not significantly (P>0.05) different from others, is ideal from the point of view of the carcass characteristics of the grasscutters. Based on this present study, it is however, recommended that for optimum carcass yield, CPM could be included at 25%, considering the carcass response.