FEED POTENTIALS OF FERMENTED SPENT SORGHUM GRAINS AND SWEET POTATO LEAVES FOR BROILER CHICKENS

Abstract

Feed cost has continued to increase in Nigeria. The feed potential of a fermented mixture of spent sorghum grains and sweet potato leaves (FSP) as an alternative feed for broiler chickens was evaluated. A co-culture of Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used to ferment a 1:1 mixture of pulverised spent sorghum grains and sweet potato leaves for 21 days at 26 ± 2 oC. FSP was used to supplement commercial broiler chicken feed at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 100% levels to produce five experimental diets. The diets were analysed for their proximate contents. Forty day-old broiler chicks were assigned to five experimental diets with eight birds allocated to each dietary treatment having two replicates of 4 birds per cage in a 28-day feeding trial of Complete Randomized Design. Feed intake, weight gain, feed efficiency ratio (FER) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) were determined. Higher amounts of FSP in the diets resulted in significantly higher (P<.05) crude protein and crude fibre contents, lower NFE content, and feed intake. The 5% FSP diet had the highest average weight gain of 23.17g/bird/day, FER (0.62), and PER (2.70). Differences in the performance indices of broilers fed the 5% FSP diet and those fed the commercial broiler feed were not significant (P >.05). It is concluded that conventional chicken feed could be supplemented with FSP at 5% level without negative effects on broiler performance.