THE EFFECT OF VARIOUS COMMERCIAL FEEDS ON THE PERFORMANCE AND MEAT QUALITY OF NOILER CHIKENS

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality and cost effectiveness in Noiler chickens fed five commercial diets coded as T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5. A total of 240 Noiler chicks were allotted to five dietary treatments with 45 birds per diet and 15 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. Feed and water were supplied ad libitum, the experiment lasted for 16 weeks. The daily feed intake at starter phase 5-8 weeks (55.15 – 16.19g), daily weight gain (20.03 – 21.41g), feed conversion ratio (2.70 – 3.05). 9-16weeks at grower’s phase, daily feed intake (3.74 – 3.80g), daily weight gain (73.22 – 74.29g), total weight gain (1092.63- 1097.63), were significantly affected by the dietary treatments (P<0.05). Most of the carcass parameters measured were significantly different (P< 0.05) by the treatments. However, non significant variations were observed in live and neck weight. The sharp practice of feed companies and high cost of commercial feed made it difficult for noiler production less profitable despite the fast growing and low mortality rate of noiler chickens. The different commercial feeds did not have any detrimental effect on carcass yields, internal organs and meat quality of the experimental animals