Nutritive value of cashewnut extraction meal

Cashew reject meal in diets of laying chickens: nutritional and economic suitability

The present study investigated the nutritional and economic suitability of cashew reject meal (full fat and defatted) as replacement for groundnut cake (GNC) in the diets of laying chickens. A total of eighty four brown shavers at 25 weeks of age were randomly allotted into seven dietary treatments each containing 6 replicates of 2 birds each. The seven diets prepared included diet 1, a control with GNC at 220gkg⁻¹ as main protein source in the diet. Diets 2, 3 and 4 consist of gradual replacement of GNC with defatted cashew reject meal (DCRM) at 50%, 75% and 100% on weight for weight basis respectively while diets 5, 6 and 7 consist of gradual inclusion of full fat cashew reject meal (FCRM) to replace 25%, 35% and 50% of GNC protein respectively. Each group was allotted a diet in a completely randomized design in a study that lasted eight weeks during which records of the chemical constituent of the test ingredients, performance characteristics, egg quality traits and economic indicators were measured. Results showed that the crude protein were 22.10 and 35.4% for FCRM and DCRM respectively. Gross energy of DCRM was 5035 kcal/kg compared to GNC, 4752 kcal/kg. Result of aflatoxin B₁ revealed moderate level between 10 and 17 μg/Kg in DCRM and GNC samples respectively. Birds on control gained 10 g, while those on DCRM and FCRM gained about 35 g and 120 g respectively. Feed intake declined (P < 0.05) with increased level of FCRM. Hen day production was highest in birds fed DCRM, followed by control and lowest value (P < 0.05) was recorded for FCRM. No significant change (P > 0.05) was observed for egg weight and shell thickness. Fat deposition and cholesterol content increased (P > 0.05) with increasing level of FCRM. The cost of feed per kilogram decreased gradually with increased inclusion level of CRM. The prediction equation showed the relative worth of DCRM compared to GNC was 92.3% whereas the actual market price of GNC triples that of DCRM. It was recommended that GNC could be completely replaced by DCRM in layer’s diets in regions where this by product is abundant. However, FCRM should be cautiously used in diets of laying chickens.

Performance of laying pullets fed on cereal-free diets based on maize offal, cassava peel and reject cashew nut meal

1. A 70-d experiment was conducted to determine the response of 26-week-old laying pullets to cereal-free diets based on maize offal, cassava peel and full-fat cashew nut meal (CNM) in comparison with a standard 550 g maize/kg reference diet. The 4 test diets all contained 315 g CNM/kg 232.5, 155.0, 77.5 and 0.0 g/kg of maize offal in combination with 77.5, 155.0, 232.5 and 315.0 g/kg of cassava peel, respectively. 2. Pullets fed on the 4 CNM-based diets consumed (P<0.05) less food than those fed on the reference diet; they also had lower (P<0.05) rates of lay, produced less (P<0.05) egg mass, had lower (P<0.05) food conversion efficiencies and their eggs had a lighter (P<0.05) yolk colour. Pullets fed some of the CNM-based diets also gained more (P<0.05) weight, the heaviest (P<0.05) being birds reared on the diet containing 315 g/kg cassava peel. Egg weight, shell thickness and albumen height from all eggs were similar. Pullets fed on the CNM-based diets had inferior (P<0.05) retention of dry matter and protein. 4. It was concluded that feeding full-fat CNM allowed for high dietary inclusion rates of cassava peel and maize offal and the resultant diets, which contained no maize, supported satisfactory performance of laying hens.