Performance of broiler chickens fed diet containing fermented maize milling waste

Abstract

Several efforts are being made to find the possibilities of utilizing agro-industrial by products in poultry nutrition. The deployment of maize milling waste for feeding broilers has a promise for reducing its nuisance value, yet enhancing the feeding of broilers. An eight weeks' study was carried out with 108 day-old Anak broiler chicks, to evaluate the performance of broiler chickens fed diet containing maize milling waste as a replacement for maize. Maize milling waste was analyzed for its proximate composition. It was then used in formulating starter and finisher broiler diets at 0.0%, 10%, 30%, 50% dietary levels. The formulated diet was fed to the chicks in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) experiment. The parameters evaluated were the initial body weight, final body weight, average feed intake, feed conversion ratio. The results obtained indicated that broiler chicks on 0.0% maize milling waste recorded the highest weight gain and feed conversion ratio followed by birds on 10% maize milling waste inclusion level. The feed intake of birds increased as the level of replacement increased. Birds on 50% milling waste had the highest feed intake which was significantly different (P<0.05) from the other treatment diets. From the results of this study, the growth performance in diet 1 (0.0%) maize milling waste inclusion level was superior to others, followed by diet 2 (10%) inclusion level. Therefore, for efficient utilization and without deleterious effects, 10% inclusion level of maize milling waste should be used in feed formulation.