RESPONSE OF BROILER FINISHERS TO MIXTURE OF SUN-DRIED CASSAVA AND SWEET POTATO PEEL MEAL BASED DIETS WITH ACIDIFIER SUPPLEMENTATION

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the impact of acidifier supplementation to a mixture of sun-dried cassava and sweet potato peels meal in diets of broiler finisher chickens on growth performance and cost implication. A total of 105, 28-day-old Arbor acres broiler chicks were randomly allocated into 4 dietary treatments containing 5 replications of 7 birds each in a completely randomized design. Diet T1 served as the positive control (PC) containing maize-soybean meal based diet, diet T2 served as the negative control (NC) containing 25% replacement of maize with sun-dried cassava-sweet potato peel mixture (CSPPM) in T1 diet, while diet T3 and T4 were formulated to contain 0.5% and 1% acidifier supplementation to NC, respectively. Results showed that final body weight and weight gain were significantly higher (p<0.05) in birds fed PC and 1% acidified CSPPM diets than those fed CSPPM based diet. Feed intake was higher (p<0.05) in PC and acidified CSPPM diets compare to those fed CSPPM based diets. Birds fed PC and 1% acidified CSPPM diets showed significantly (p<0.05) lower feed:gain compared to the group fed CSPPM based diet. Feed cost/intake and feed cost/gain were significantly higher (p<0.05) in control group than in other dietary treatment groups. Feed cost/kg gain reduced significantly (p<0.05) in birds fed acidified CSPPM diets than those fed PC and NC diets. Conclusively, CSPPM can replace maize up to 25% in broiler finisher ration with acidifier supplementation up to 1% inclusion level for improved performance at a lower feed cost/kg gain.