PERFORMANCE AND COST BENEFIT OF REPLACING WHEAT OFFAL WITH XYLANASE-SUPPLEMENTED RICE OFFAL IN THE DIETS OF BROILER FINISHER CHICKENS

Abstract

Increasing cost of conventional feed ingredients used in the formulation of poultry diets has continued to be a great challenge for poultry producers in developing countries like Nigeria. Consequently, readily available and cheaper alternatives need to be explored. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance and cost benefit of finisher broilers fed Xylanase-supplemented rice offal (XSRO) based diets as replacement for wheat offal. Three hundred finisher broiler chickens were assigned to five diets in which XSRO replaced wheat offal at 0 (diet 1), 25 (diet 2), 50 (diet 3), 75 (diet 4), and 100% (diet 5) levels in a completely randomized design. Xylanase was suppplemented at 1g/10kg rice offal and the study lasted for 4 weeks. Daily feed intake, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio, mortality rate, feed cost per kg, feed cost per kg gain and cost saving, were the main parameters studied. Results showed no significant difference in daily feed intake, daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio. However, feed cost per kg gain (N) decreased with increased level of XSRO in the diet. It was therefore concluded that Xylanase-supplemented rice offal can completely replace wheat offal in the diets of finisher broilers without compromising performance. Also, the replacement of XSRO for wheat offal at 100% level resulted in a cost saving of N162.60.