Effects of Dietary Pigeon Pea (Cajanus cajan L.) Seed Meal on Growth Performance in Piglets and Growing Pigs

Abstract

To investigate the effects of dietary pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.) seed meal (PM) on growth performance in early life stage of pigs and whether the raw PM could be used as a plant protein resource, 32 piglets were randomly allotted into 0, 10, 20 and 30% dietary PM groups of 8 pigs (2 pigs attained to the final 30kg body weight. Then, the composition of basal diet was changed from piglet diet to growing pig (30-60kg) diet. In both experimental feeding periods, feed intake, body weight gain, feeding period (day) until respective final body weights and feed conversion ratio were measured. Up to 20% PM group in growing pigs, there was no definite difference in the feed intake between each group, but the body weight gain tended to insignificantly decrease with the increasing dietary PM level, resulting in the insignificant increase of the feeding period and feed conversion ratio. However, all parameters significantly changed (P<0.05) at 30% PM level in growing pigs except in the feed conversion ratio which showed a significant difference (P<0.05) between 10 and 30% PM levels.This suggests that as a plant protein source the PM could be incorporated beyond the 30% level for piglet diet (53.4% substitution rate of PM for soybean meal) and up to the 20% level for growing pig diet (76% substitution rate of PM for soybean meal) and that the effective utilization of PM enables to reduce the feed cost in pig production.

Effects of a charcoal powder–wood vinegar compound solution in piglets for raw pigeon pea seed meal

“…seeds have a great potential as an important protein source (Cheva-Isarakul, 1992;Oshodi et al, 1993) and every effort has been made to use pigeon pea seed meal (PM) for chickens (Mizubuti et al, 1995), pigs (Batterham et al, 1993;Mekbungwan et al, 1999) and lambs (Rao and Phillips, 2001). However, the efficacy of PM is limited by the presence of protease inhibitors such as trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors (Batterham et al, 1993).…”

Digestibility of Soybean and Pigeon Pea Seed Meals and Morphological Intestinal Alterations in Pigs

“…Box 1240, Heitersheim D-79420, Germany), and their chemical composition was analyzed at the Department of Animal Technology, Maejo University, Thailand (Table 1, see Mekbungwan et al [20] for chemical composition, such as the essential amino acid content of PM and SM).…”

“…Although its use is limited by the higher content of anti-nutritional factors such as trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors than SM [2,34], Ene-Obong [7] has reported that such anti-nutritional factors do not cause problems in animals based on in vitro protein digestibility. In feeding experiments, PM could substitute SM in diets for pig based on growth performance [20]. However, a clear understanding of the nutrient digestibility in PM is still lacking.…”

“…Although numerous studies dealing with histological intestinal alterations related to fed diets have been published, the direct relationship between histological intestinal alterations and intestinal functions in the same animals has not thus far been studied. As most of nutrients in PM were almost half content of those in SM [20], SM and PM are thought to be the most suitable feed ingredients for judging the intestinal function. The second aim of this study was to establish the relationship between histological intestinal alterations and intestinal functions more clearly.…”

“…The use of alternative legume seeds is encouraged to supply a constant plant protein source in animal feed and to reduce dependence on SM imported to Thailand. Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.) is a perennial legume indigenous to tropical and sub-tropical regions, and pigeon pea seed meal (PM) has been studied widely from nutritional [20,30] and growth performance [4,7,20] standpoints. Although its use is limited by the higher content of anti-nutritional factors such as trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors than SM [2,34], Ene-Obong [7] has reported that such anti-nutritional factors do not cause problems in animals based on in vitro protein digestibility.…”