Behavior of the productive indices of guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) under three levels of cocoa husk (Theobroma cacao)

Abstract

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of cocoa husk (Theobroma cacao) in the feeding of guinea pigs in the fattening stage. This research was carried out in a cavícola plant located in Quindialó - Quisapincha. We used 160 male pigs of 8 weeks of age with a weight between 350-450 g, which were fed with four experimental diets: T1 with 0% inclusion of cocoa husk, T2 with 5% of cocoa husk, T3 with 10% cocoa husk and T4 with 15% cocoa husk. The variables evaluated were: daily weight gain, final weight gain (FWG) and feed conversion (FC). A randomized block design with four treatments and four repetitions was used, and the analysis of variance and Tukey test was performed at 5%, for the treatments that were statistically significant, with the statistical program SAS 2000. The study shows that the values of initial weight (PI) presented a similar behavior (P = 0.8005), while for the final weight (FW) and daily weight gain (DWG) the value for treatment 4 (T4) was significantly higher (p = 0.0001), with a value of 1189 g and 16.10 g respectively, added to that the feed conversion (FC) in the same way was better in the treatment (T4) with a value of 4, being significantly compared to the rest of the treatments. Demonstrating that the inclusion of cocoa husk at 15% in diets is efficient to obtain a better productive response in guinea pigs, without causing negative effects on the animals.

Keywords

• cocoa husk
• guinea pigs
• weight gain
• feed conversion.