GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS FED VARIOUS DIETARY SOURCES OF ENERGY AND PROTEIN

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the interaction of energy and protein sources on the growth performance of broiler chickens. Four different diets were formulated in which energy (yellow maize and yellow sorghum) and protein: Groundnut cake (GNC) and Soya bean cake (SBC) sources were combined. The diets were designated as T1 (yellow maize and GNC), T2 (yellow maize and SBC), T3 (yellow sorghum and GNC) and T4 (yellow sorghum and SBC), respectively. Two hundred and four (204) day old broiler chicks were randomly allotted into four dietary treatments replicated three times with seventeen (17) birds per replicate in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). The experiment lasted for eight weeks. The result showed that there was no significant (P<0.05) influence of diet on all performance parameters during the starter and finisher phases. The productive and overall performance of the birds were not significantly (P<0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. It was concluded that Soya bean cake (SBC) and Groundnut cake (GNC) are suitable plant protein sources in broiler chicken diets with either yellow maize or yellow sorghum as energy sources. Both SBC and GNC are recommended for incorporation in the diets of broiler chickens with no adverse effects on productive performance.