PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKEN FED SUN-DRIED PINEAPPLE (Ananas comosus) AND ORANGE (Citrus sinensis) PEELS WASTE BASED DIETS UNDER SINGLE PHASE FEEDING

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effect of orange(OP) and pineapple(PP) peel wastes as replacement for maize in poultry diets. The peels were collected from retailers and sun-dried until a 10 % moisture was obtained. Thereafter, the peels were grounded and mixed with other feed ingredients. The experiment lasted for 70days. One hundred and sixty (160) days old broiler chicks were allocated into four different treatments withfour replicates and ten birds (10) each in a complete randomized design. Four diets containing pineapple and orange peels wastes were formulated to replace maize at 0 % (control), 5 % (PP), 5 % (OP) and 5 % (MPO) mixtures respectively. Data on growth performance such as weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were measured and apparent nutrient digestibility was also determined. Data were subjected to one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA); significant means were separated by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test at (p<0.05) as contained in the SAS package (2015) version 15.0. The results showed that only the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was influenced by the peels based diets. The dry matter, crude protein, ash, nitrogen free extract and ether extract digestibility were significantly affected (p < 0.05) by the peel-based diets. Birds on the MPO compared favourably with the control in all digestibility parameters measured. It was concluded that broiler birds could tolerate up to 5 % dietary levels of OP, PP meal and their mixture (MPO). without adverse effect.