INTRODUCTION
Poultry producers aim at producing high
quality meat and eggs at minimal cost. Maize is the conventional source of
energy in poultry nutrition while soy bean meal is the conventional source of
protein. These ingredients are scarce and expensive due primarily to
competition for available cereals between man and animals in its use as
food/feed. The rapid growth of human and livestock population has created an
increased need for food and feeds worldwide and this demands that alternative
feed resources must be identified and evaluated (Odunsi et al, 2003).
Cassava is a staple root crop that is rich in
carbohydrates, calcium, vitamins B and C and essential minerals and is
considered to be a suitable alternative to corn as an energy source in poultry
diets (CGIAR, 2017). Cassava production worldwide was estimated at about 278
million tonnes as of 2018 (FAO, 2018) with Africa contributing to about 56%
(about 170 million tonnes of the total global production (FAOSTAT, 2019).
Nigeria is the largest global producer of cassava producing about 60 million
tonnes which accounts for 21.5% of the cassava produced globally (FAOSTAT,
2019).
The use of cassava as animal feed is not
novel, there are several researches on its use as an alternative to maize in
animal feed with favourable results (Omede et al, 2018; Bhuiyan and Iji,
2015; Anaeto and Adighibe, 2011). The replacement of maize with cassava flour
or pellets have been reported to be economical. However, these findings appear
to have been overtaken by events and recently in Nigeria cassava has been
attracting interest as an industrial crop having found various uses in the
starch, pharmaceutical, bread and biscuit industries. This has made the price
of cassava tuber to be on the increase thereby making its use to replace maize
in the diets of livestock unattractive economically (Akinfala et al,
2011). Agricultural wastes from cassava harvesting and processing such as
cassava leaves and peels are underutilised in Nigeria because they are often
left to rot away on farms and homesteads after harvesting the roots which in
turn constitutes environmental nuisance (Olowoyeye et al, 2019; Akinfala
and Tewe, 2004). Cassava peelings has been used to satisfactorily replace maize
up to 40% for pigs, 15% for broilers and 27% for layers (Tewe and Egunike,
1992).
Previous studies on the use of cassava in
poultry diets has been centred on the use of the flour, whole tuber whole
cassava plant and peels as replacement for maize of the use of cassava leaves
as replacement for soybean meal. In this study, attempt has been made to
replace both maize and soybean meal with cassava peels and cassava leaves
respectively in the same diet.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The experiment was conducted at the Poultry
Unit of the Teaching and Research Farm, University of Ibadan.
Experimental diets
and design
Fresh cassava peels and leaves from mature
cassava (sweet variety) were collected when the tubers were being harvested and
processed from a farm in Eruwa in Oyo State. The cassava peels and leaves were
sun-dried separately on clean cement surface. After drying, they were milled
and stored inside airtight containers pending their inclusion in the
experimental diet.
Four experimental diets (Table 2 and 3) were
formulated for both the starter and the finisher phase. Diet one (T1), had
neither cassava peels nor cassava leaf meal and served as the control diet. Diet
two (T2), contained both cassava peels and cassava leave as 20% replacement for
maize and 20% replacement for soybean meal respectively. Diet three (T3) contained
only cassava leaves as 20% replacement for soya bean meal. Diet four (T4) contained
only cassava peels as 20% replacement for maize.
Management of the
experimental birds
180 1-day-old broiler Abhor acre chicks were
purchased from a commercial hatchery in Ibadan were mass brooded for 7 days and
fed a common commercial diet. The birds were randomly allotted into four
dietary treatments groups with three replicates of 15 birds per replicate in a
completely randomized design. Feed and water were provided ad libitum and all
recommended management practices was carried out.
Collection blood
samples and analysis
At day 49 of the experiment, 2 birds per
replicate were randomly selected for haematological and serum tests. The birds
were bled with the aid of sterile hypodermic needle and syringe via the wing
vein. 10ml of blood was collected; 5ml of blood was released into sample
bottles containing ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) as anti-coagulant
and the bottles were shaken thoroughly to ensure proper mixing of the blood
with EDTA to prevent coagulation. The remaining 5ml of blood samples was
released into sample bottles without the anti-coagulant to harvest the serum.
The bottles containing the blood samples were kept in an ice pack and taken to
the laboratory for analysis.
The haematological parameters examined are;
red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells (WBC), packed cell volume (PCV),
haemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular haemoglobin
(MCH), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and mean corpuscular
volume (MCV). Red blood cells and white blood cells were determined by improved
Neubauer haemocytometer (Kelly, 1979). Packed cell volume was determined by
Wintrobe’s microhaematocrit (Kelly, 1979), haemoglobin was determined by
cyanometaemoglobin methods (Mitruka and Rawnsley, 1977). Mean corpuscular
haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and mean
corpuscular volume (MCV) were calculated from haemoglobin concentration, PVC
and RBC as described by Jain (1986).
Blood samples for serum biochemistry analysis
were centrifuged after clotting. The total protein was determined by biuret
method (Reinhold, 1953), the albumin was determined by Bromocresol green (BCG)
method as described by Peters et al, (1982), globulin was calculated by
subtracting the values obtained from the albumin from the total protein value.
Alanine amino transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alkaline
phosphatase (ALP) was determined by spectrophotometric method (Rej and Holder,
1983). Glucose was determined as described by Cooper et al, 1970).
Proximate analysis
Proximate composition of the test ingredients
and the experimental diets were carried out using the procedure of AOAC (2000).
Statistical analysis
Data
collected was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS (2000). Means
were separated using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test.
RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION
The haematological parameters of broilers fed
cassava peels and leaf meal diet is presented in Table 4. The results obtained
from this study shows that the different dietary treatments had no significant
(p>0.05) effect on all the observed haematological parameters with the
exception of lymphocytes and neutrophils. The PCV values from this study were
within the standard range 22-25% for apparently healthy chickens (Mitruka and
Rawnsley, 1977; Schalm et al, 1975).
The normal PCV values suggests that the birds were not anaemic. All the
values for RBC in this experiment were slightly higher than those reported by
Mitruka and Rawnsley (1977) except for Treatment 4 which fell within the range
of 2.0 – 4.0 103/mm3. However, they all fell within the
range of 2.5 – 4.5 103/mm3 reported by McDonald (1996).
This variation is in agreement with the report of Emenalum et al. (2009)
and Ogbuewu et al (2008) that the number of erythrocytes of animals in
good health varies with species, age, sex, diets and clinical conditions of the
animal.
The values for WBC obtained in this
experiment fell within normal limits as reported by Mitruka
and Rawnsley (1977). Since deferential leucocytes are used as indicators of
stress response and sensitive biomarkers crucial to immune functions (Adeyemo and Sani, 2013), this implies that the birds
were not immunologically challenged. The values for haemoglobin across the
treatments were within normal limits of 7.0 – 13.0 g/dl and 6.5 – 9.4 g/dl
reported by Mitruka and Rawnsley (1977) and Ameen et
al, (2007) respectively. These values were also in agreement with reports
from other researchers (Aderemi and Alabi, 2013; Ebunike et al, 2009).
The normal values obtained indicate effective transportation of oxygen,
carbohydrates and other feed nutrients in the body (Okorie
et al, 2011). The values for monocyte, neutrophils, basophil and eosinophil were
within normal range reported by Nowaczewski and Kontecka
(2012). Since high monocyte, neutrophils, basophil and eosinophil values
are an indication of active infection, the results shows that the birds have no
bacterial or viral infection.
Table 5 shows the serum biochemistry
parameters of broilers fed cassava peels and leaf meal diets. All the serum
biochemistry parameters were not significantly different across dietary
treatments. Total serum protein has been reported as an indicator of protein
retained in the animal body (Esonu et al, 2001). The total protein
values obtained in this experiment was higher than the values of 2.59 -3.46
g/dl reported by Silva et al (2009). However, it was within the range of
3.25 – 7.61 g/dl reported by Rajurker et al (2009) and 4.02 – 8.36 g/dl
by Mitruka and Rawnsley (1977). These results implies that the dietary protein
was adequate across the treatments. The stability in total protein values
irrespective of the treatments suggests that the diets are adequate for the
chickens (Ebunike et al, 2009). The albumin fraction of the total
protein was consistently higher than globulin across the treatments, this is an
indication that the birds are healthy as serum globulin in an infected animal
is increased because it is the principal site for circulating antibodies i.e.,
immunoglobulins (Harper, 1982).
Alanine amino transferase (ALT) is a good
mirror for the overall body enzymatic and metabolic process in birds and is
valued as an index of liver disease (Aderemi and Alabi, 2013). Low value of ALT
is an indication that there is no liver damage.
CONCLUSION
The
analysed data from this study revealed that cassava peel and cassava leaf can
replace maize and soybean meal respectively in broiler diets without any
deleterious effect on haematological parameters and serum biochemistry
parameters of broilers
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