This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplementing tuna oil to diets of growing-finishing pigs (barrows and gilts) on backfat characteristics when slaughtered at different weights. Four hundred and eighty crossbred (Large White×Landrace×Duroc) pigs averaging 30 kg were allotted to 12 treatment combinations (40 pigs/treatment combination) in a completely randomized design with a 2×2×3 factorial arrangement of treatments. The treatments were: dietary tuna oil supplementation (0 and 2%); sex (barrows and gilts); and slaughter weight (90, 100 and 110 kg). As pigs reached their slaughter weight, they were randomly selected (8 pigs/treatment combination; 96 pigs in total) and slaughtered. Backfat colour, hardness and fatty acid profile were assessed. There were significant (p<0.05) differences in colour (L* and a* values) among treatments. Backfat of the control group was harder than on the tuna oil (p<0.001) and that of barrows was harder than of gilts (p<0.05). In addition, the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) values of fat from the tuna oil group stored for 3 days were higher (p<0.001) than the control group. The TBARS values of gilts tended to be higher than those of barrows and increased with increasing slaughter weight in the tuna oil group. The cholesterol and triglyceride levels were not affected by diet and sex but the triglyceride level increased with increasing slaughter weight (p<0.01). The tuna oil group had higher polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content, ratio of PUFA: saturated fatty acid (SFA) and total n-3 fatty acids but lower monounsaturated fatty acids content and n-6:n-3 fatty acids than the control group (p<0.01). Gilts had higher PUFA and n-6 fatty acids in backfat than barrows (p<0.05). The backfat from both 90 and 100 kg slaughter-weight groups had a lower ratio of n6:n3 fatty acid than the 110 kg slaughter-weight group (p<0.05). However, this was more pronounced in the tuna oil group. The PUFA: SFA was also increased while the n-6:n-3 ratio tended to reach the recommended levels for healthy eating in human beings of <5. However, due to oxidative susceptibility, barrows should not be slaughtered at more than 100 kg for the meat to be acceptable to consumers/
Tag: livestock feed
Assessing the effectiveness of the volunteer farmer trainer approach in dissemination of livestock feed technologies in Kenya vis-à-vis other information sources
Improvement in agricultural production, productivity and sustainability is dependent on farmers’ access to up-to-date information on modern agricultural technologies. In the past, agricultural extension officers played an important role in disseminating knowledge from researchers to farmers. However, this linear model of extension was not effective. As a result, the extension system in developing countries has been changing to accommodate challenges presented by the linear model. Major modifications include the introduction of participatory approaches and the proliferation of many sources providing agricultural information. The sources could be interpersonal or impersonal. Farmers’ choice of a particular source can be determined by various factors including socio-economic characteristics of the farmer, reliability, accessibility and affordability of the information source. Previous studies have been done to determine farmers’ preferences for sources of information. However, little has been done to establish the type of information accessed from particular information sources. This study addresses the gap by assessing the effectiveness of the Volunteer Farmer Trainer (VFT) approach in disseminating information vis-a-vis other sources of knowledge. The VFT approach is a type of farmer-to-farmer extension model that is used by the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project in Kenya to disseminate information on livestock feed innovations. The objectives of the study were to identify farmers’ sources of information, information source preference, access to and training on livestock feed technologies and technology sharing among farmers.The findings indicate that radio was the most accessed source of information followed by Community Extension Service Providers (CESPs), neighbours, field days and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Development (MoALFD); all accessed by more than 40% of the sampled farmers. With regard to gender, a significantly higher percentage of male farmers than female farmers had access to most of the information sources. Examples include radio, field days, agricultural shows, skilled farmers, written materials, demonstrations, newspapers, breeders’ shows, mobile phones and posters. Clearly, male farmers have more access to both electronic and interpersonal sources of information than their female counterparts.