Abstract:
An eight weeks (8) feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the growth performance and nutrient
digestibility of broiler chickens fed diets containing 10% and 20% levels of heat processed and
enzymes processed Bambara Groundnut Offal (BGO) diets. A total of 180 starter broiler chicks
were assigned to five dietary treatments in a completely randomized design, each treatment was
replicated three (3) times with twelve (12) birds per replicate. Five (5) experimental diets T1, T2,
T3, T4 and T5 were formulated for the starter and finisher phase such that T1 had 0% BGO and
served as the control diet. T2 and T3 had 10% and 20% heat processed BGO respectively while
T4 and T5 had 10% and 20% enzymes processed BGO respectively, and fed for 56days.
At the end of the finisher phase, three (3) birds from each dietary treatment were randomly
selected and moved to metabolic cages and allowed to acclimatize for three (3) days, after which
weighed amount of feed was fed to them daily and faecal samples collected daily for four (4)
days, samples were oven dried weighed and sampled for digestibility analysis.
Results of the experiment indicate that, in both phases of the experiment no significant difference
(P>0.05) in average final weight (AFW), total weight gain (TWG) and daily weight gain (DWG).
There were significance differences (P<0.05) in average total feed intake (ATFI) and daily feed
intake (DFI). Feed conversion ratio FCR was not significantly (P>0.05) affected at different
levels of BGO inclusion in the two processing methods in both starter and finisher phase.
Nutrient digestibility of dry matter, ether extract and nitrogen free extract was not significantly
(P<0.05) affected. However, there were significant differences (P>0.05) in crude protein and
crude fibre digestibility. Both processing methods of BGO at 10% and 20% inclusion rate did not
have any adverse effect on broiler chicken production, however, 20% heat processed BGO is
recommended for reduced dietary cost |
