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The conventional pig feeding is supported by the use of conventional diets based on maize and soybean, whose cost approximately represents 70 %, so it is necessary to use new sources of food to reduce their production prices, without affecting the productive performance of pigs with high genetic potential (Cabrera et al. 2012 and García et al. 2015).
Ecuador has a great potential in terms of plant biodiversity, with high production of a wide range of crops, including taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) tubers which can be use as pigs food. These tubers have an appreciable amount of nutrients, but in natural state they have a high content of secondary metabolites, which can be reduced by biotechnological techniques, as silage (Guzmán et al. 2012 and Kasprowicz et al. 2016).
The silage is obtained through of controlled anaerobic fermentation. Studies developed in Cuba and Ecuador have shown that this product can be supplied to pigs after 7d, moment in which the fermentation conditions and the content of secondary metabolites are not significant from the nutritional point of view to obtain an optimal performance in the productive indexes of pigs and reduce the feeding cost in pigs production (Caicedo et al. 2013).
The above mention was considered to study new compositions of agroindustrial by-products (taro tubers with natural yogurt) used for the obtaining of silage foods for pigs feeding. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of taro tubers silage with natural yogurt on the productive performance of commercial pigs.
The research was developed in accordance with the guidelines for animal welfare of Republic of Ecuador and the experimental protocol, according to Yin et al. (2004). The study was performed in the Granja Agropecuaria Caicedo (Pastaza, Ecuador). The food was obtained by ensiling chopped taro tubers (60 %), water for human consumption (38 %), natural yogurt (1 %) and mineral premixture for pigs (1 %). The mixture was placed in plastic tanks of 250 L capacity, covered, under shade and left to fermented for 8d before being used. The chemical composition of the silage was: 27.80 % DM, 8.58 % CP, 95.16 % OM, 2.85 % CF, 4.84 % of ashes and DE pigs 3335 kcal kg DM-1.
A total of 60 castrated male pigs, from the Pietrain x Duroc x Landrace commercial cross, of 70 d of age, with initial average live weight of 25.45 ± 0.69 kg were used. The animals were randomly housed in individual metal pens, 0.50 m x 1.60 m (0.8 m2) for 89 d (five of adaptation to diets and 84 in experimentation). Thirty pigs were used per treatment, each pen constituted an experimental unit. The pen was provided with a hopper feeder, located in a stable with walls of 1.6 m high and concrete floor. The water was ad libitum in nipple drinkers. The average room temperature was 24 °C.
A feeding scale was used according to the nutritional requirements of the animals (Rostagno et al.2011), those who received the food in the first hours of the morning in a single meal (8:00 a.m.). The treatments that intake silage first received the dry food and an hour later the silage was offered, so that they would dispose of it freely (Lezcano et al. 2014).
The treatments consisted of two experimental diets: T1 (control diet) based on maize and soybean; T2 (substitution of 100 % of maize by silage) of 8 d of elaboration. All diets were formulated according to the NRC (2012) recommendations (tables 1 and 2).
Table 1 Composition and nutritional contribution of diets for pigs in the growing stage
1Each kg contains: vitamin A, 4125 U.I.; vitamin D3,900 U.I.; vitamin E, 24,8 UI; vitamin K3, 1.80 mg; vitamin B1, 60 mg; vitamin B2, 1,88 mg; pantothenic acid, 9 mg; nicotinicacid, 18 mg; folic acid, 0.180 mg; vitamin B6, 1.20 mg; vitamin B12, 0.012 mg; biotin 0.060 mg; choline, 120 mg; manganes, 64 mg; copper, 7.2 mg; iron, 48 mg; zinc, 66 mg; selenium, 0.22 mg; iodine, 0.60 mg.
Table 2 Composition and nutritional contribution of diets for pigs in the fattening stage
1Each kg contains: vitamin A, 4125 U.I.; vitamin D3,900 U.I.; vitamin E, 24,8 UI; vitamin K3, 1.80 mg; vitamin B1, 60 mg; vitamin B2, 1,88 mg; pantothenic acid, 9 mg; nicotinicacid, 18 mg; folic acid, 0.180 mg; vitamin B6, 1.20 mg; vitamin B12, 0.012 mg; biotin 0.060 mg; choline, 120 mg; manganes, 64 mg; copper, 7.2 mg; iron, 48 mg; zinc, 66 mg; selenium, 0.22 mg; iodine, 0.60 mg..
The animals were individually weighed every 14 d on a Cardinal scale of 200 kg capacity. The productive performance variables under study were in correspondence with Lezcano et al. (2014): daily food intake (DFI), daily weight gain (DWG), feed conversion (FC) and final weight (FW). The pigs were dewormed with Fenbendazole at a rate of 10 g 100 kg LW-1 after being selected for the experiment. Analysis of variance was performed according to a completely randomized design. The Fisher (1954) test P≤0.05 was applied to test the means. The analyses were performed using the statistical program Infostat (Di Rienzo et al. 2012).
There were no significant differences (P> 0.05) at 42 or 84 d for the initial weight, live weight, food intake and weight gain. Neither was in feed conversion in commercial pigs, fed with taro silage (table 3).
In this study no significant effect was registered for the productive performance indicators in pigs (Pietrain x Duroc x Landrace) in growth and fattening, fed with taro silage with natural yogurt in total replacement of maize in the diet. Globally, the maize (Zea mays) is the main energy source to formulate balanced rations for monogastric animals, among which are pigs (Nunes 2012).
However, studies with roots and tubers show that this raw matter can be totally or partially substituted to reduce costs in pig production, which guarantees an energy food that contributes to reduce imports (Almaguel et al. 2010 and Lezcano et al. 2017). The use of silage in pig fattening has been studied in growing pigs from 20 kg of live weight, with satisfactory results in the productive performance (Almaguel et al. 2011 and Lezcano et al. 2015).
For the appropriate use of crop by-products of vegetable origin in pigs feeding processing techniques must be applied, such as cooking, drying and fermentation, which allow to reduce the content of antinutritional factors and increase the nutrient digestibility of these foods (Caicedo et al. 2017), with the purpose of obtaining an adequate productive performance (Sánchez et al. 2018).
Table 3 Productive performance of pigs fed with taro tubers silage with natural yogurt
There was no significant differences P<0.05 according to Fisher (1954)
In the feeding of commercial fattening pigs it is feasible to completely replace the maize by taro tubers silage with natural yogurt, without affecting the productive performance of the animals.
