GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS QUALITY OF BROILER CHICKENS OFFERED HONEY IN DRINKING WATER DURING HOT-DRY SEASON IN NORTH WESTERN PART OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The trial investigated the effect of different levels of honey in drinking water on the responses of broiler chickens during hot-dry season (March-May). Thirty six broiler chicks were used for this study. The dayold chicks were randomly assigned to three treatment groups with each treatment having three  eplicates of four birds. The growing broilers at four weeks were offered either 0 (0H), 10 (10H), or 20mL (20H) honey per litre of water during the hot-dry season. Records on daily weight gain (WG), feed intake (FI), water intake (WI) and Feed conversion ratio (FCR) were taken. At the end of the field experiment, data on the carcass quality parameters were taken which include live weight, plucked weight, carcass weight and dressing percentage and weights of  arcass cuts like head, neck, breast meat, brisket, thigh, wings, drumstick and shank. Weights of organs were also taken which included heart, lungs, kidney, liver,
gizzard, spleen and Proventriculus. Honey had no significant (P > 0.05) effect on WG, FCR , WI, FI, dressing percentage (DP %), carcass weight, head, breast meat, wings, thigh, drumstick, brisket and internal organs but have significant effect (P < 0.05) on live weight, the neck and shank lengths across treatments. In conclusion, honey has significant effect on live weights of broilers, neck and shank lengths at 20ml of honey offered during the hot-dry season. Honey can thus be used to improve broilers welfare against heat stress and improve growth performance when offered at 20 ml in the hot-dry season.