Demissie Negash*
Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Industry Development Institute, Bishoftu, Ethiopia
*Corresponding Author: Demissie Negash, Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Industry Development Institute, Bishoftu, Ethiopia.
Received: December 18, 2019; Published: January 07, 2020
Animal production in Ethiopia is hindered by numerous constraints such as poor nutrition and management amongst others. The supply of processed animal feed stuffs is very limited. This study was undertaken in four regions of the country namely Oromia, Amhara, Tigray, South Nations, Nationalities and Peoples in selected towns and Addis Ababa city administration to assess compound feeds sector and evaluate the quality of compound feeds supplied to farmers in Ethiopia. A total of 34 feed producers were surveyed, to provide an overview of the sector, while chemical analysis was used to assess the quality of 64 compound feeds which are categorized in to three (layer, milking cow, and beef feeds). Qualitative and quantitative survey methodology by using a structured questionnaire vs qualitative data to collect basic information and further details on specific parameters and key informant interview to understand details of particular issues such as key challenges and opportunities are the two techniques used in this study. The feed samples were analyzed for chemical contents (DM, CP, CF, Moisture, Metabolic Energy and Fat) at Animal Products, Veterinary Drug and Feed quality Assessment Center laboratory. The results of the analysis revealed that contents of the various nutritional parameters have variations when compared with the feed standard of Ethiopian Standard Agency, 2019. Compound feed production is dominated by poultry feed products (61%), while 27.2%, 8.4%, 3.2% are dairy, fattening and others respectively. Most of the feed companies operate below their installed capacity. Raw materials are sourced locally, and maize makes up around 39.5% of total tonnage from the companies ingredient. The DM content ranges between 88.28%-91.87%, 89.21%-91.99% and 89.61%-91.31% for lactating dairy cow, beef and layer poultry respectively. The CP content ranges between 10.91%-17.90%, 10.27-16.34% and 11.39-18.57% for layer beef and lactating dairy cow respectively. The metabolic energy value ranged between 1364-2746Kkal/kg, 1092-2890kcal/kg and 1703-2880kcal/kg for layer, beef and lactating dairy cow respectively. Production of Compound animal feed in Ethiopia have many challenges both by internal and external factors of the industry. So to produce quality and safety feed more concern is necessary from government and feed industry owners. The Government should institute sound policies to assure adequate feed supplies and reliable quality of raw materials and finished feeds at prices affordable to livestock and poultry raisers.
Keywords: Compound Feed; Challenges and Opportunity; Feed Quality
Citation: Demissie Negash. “Evaluation of Commercial Animal Feed Quality and Manufacturing Status in Ethiopia". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 4.2 (2020): 49-61.
Copyright: © 2020 Demissie Negash. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.