GROWTH PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIET CONTAINING ONION SCALES

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the inclusion value of onion scales in the diets of broiler chickens for a period of 8 weeks. One hundred and twenty (120) day old broiler chicks of Anak strain were fed diets tagged diets 1, 2, 3 and 4 containing 4 inclusion levels of onion scales; 0.0g/kg, 2. Og/kg, 4.0g/kg and 6.0g/kg respectively. The chicks were randomly allotted to the 4 treatments diet with 3 replicates having 10 chicks per replicates. Results showed non significant (p>0.05) effect in all the parameters measured, However the control diet recorded the highest (p> 0.05) body weight gain (1988.62g/b) compared to other treatments. The least mortality rate was obtained from birds on diet 3 and diet 4 (1 .2%), it decreased (p>0.05) as the level of onion scales inclusion increased in the diets, The use of onion scale in the diets of broiler chickens does not have negative effect on the biological activities of the birds.