GROWTH PERFORMMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS FED VARIOUS LEVELS OF AFRICAN LOCUST BEAN (Parkia biglobosa) BASED DIETS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.4519Keywords:
Africa locust bean see, Soya bean, Performance, Broiler chicken, FeedAbstract
This experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth performance of broiler chickens fed various level of African locust bean (P.biglobosa) based diets. One hundred and twenty day old broiler chicks (marshal strain) were allotted to four dietary reatment in which African locust bean seed replace soya beans as protein source at 0, 10, 20 and 30% levels coded as diets 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively, The experiment was in a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates per treatment and ten birds per replicate. Feed and water were supplied ad libitum and the trial lasted for eight weeks. At the starter phase, daily
feed intake (58.47-60.87g), daily weight gain (16.19-18.39g) and feed conversion ratio (3.22-4.02) were not significantly different. At finisher phase the daily feed intake (90.18-102.87g) indicated significant difference(P<0.01) while the values of the daily weight gain (34.92-40.49g) were significant in birds fed diet 4 and 3 respectively. However, feed conversion ratio did not show any significant treatment effect, the values ranged from (2.53-2.95). From these findings African locust bean meal can replaced soya bean at 20% without any adverse effect on the performance of birds with concomitant reduction in cost.
