HAEMATOLOGY AND ECONOMICS PRODUCTION OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIETARY LEVELS OF MAIZE MILLING RESIDUE AS REPLACEMENT FOR MILLET OFFAL

Abstract

The experiments was conducted to determine the Haematology and Economics of production of broiler chickens fed different levels of maize milling residue (MMR) as replacement for millet offal (MO) at graded levels of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%. Two hundred broiler chicks were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments in a completely randomized design with forty birds per treatment (four replicates). Experimental feed and water were offered ad-libitum. The feeding trials lasted for eight weeks. At the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected for haematology. The haematological indices which include packed cell volume, haemoglobin, red blood cells and white blood cells were not affected by the dietary treatment except mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH). The highest values for MCV (141.55) and MCH (44.64) were both recorded on diet 3 (50% MMR). The results of cost of gain analysis indicated that feed cost in naira per kilogram of feed decreased slightly asmaize milling residue substitute millet offal,. The lowest cost/kg gain (N323.94) was on diet 2 (25% MMR) and the highest cost/kg gain (N375.25) was in diet 3 (50% MMR). Based on this analysis it is economical to use MMR for broiler feeding than MO, it has also been concluded that MMR can completely (100%) replace millet offal (MO) as dietary fibre source for feeding broiler finishers with no negative effects on Haematology accompanied by slight reduction in cost of production.