EFFECT OF PROCESSING ON NUTRITIVE VALUE OF CASSAVA MEAL FOR BROILER CHICKS

Abstract

Three graded levels (15, 30 and 45%) of each of cassava flours, peeled cassava meal (PCM), unpeel­ed cassava meal (UCM) and garri were fed to Ross — type broiler chicks from one to six weeks of age and thereafter treatment groups were fed a common finisher ration to 10 weeks of age. All substitutions were made at the expense of maize and each treat­ment diet contained 24% crude protein. At six weeks of age the result showed that cassava meals could substitute the maize component up to 45% without adverse effect on the final live-weight, feed con­sumption and feed efficiency. Also different pro­cessing methods applied to the cassava tubers did not affect the performance of birds. At 10 weeks of age only the birds on garri showed slight but signifi­cant differences relative to other dietary treatments.