GROWTH RESPONSE OF FUNAAB ALPHA BROILER CHICKENS TO DIETS CONTAINING VARYING LEVELS OF ALLIGATOR PEPPER (AFRAMOMUM MELEGUETA) SEED MEAL

Abstract

Alligator pepper (Aframomum melegueta) seed meal (APSM) was used as an alternative growth promoter in diets of FUNAAB Alpha broiler chickens. One hundred and fifty (150) 1-day-old chicks were arranged in a Completely Randomized Design into five treatment groups, three replicates per treatment with ten birds per replicate. The birds were fed basal diet containing APSM at 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 g/kg for the 8 weeks experimental duration. Data were collected on feed intake (FI), weight gain (WG), and feed conversion ratios (FCR) were calculated for both phases of growth of broiler chicken. Results revealed that dietary inclusion of Alligator pepper significantly (p<0.05) influenced final weight, weight gain and FCR of broiler chicken at chicks’ phase. While at finisher phase, the growth indices were comparable across all treatment groups. The study therefore concluded that dietary inclusion of 0.5, 1.0 or 1.5g/kg APSM relatively enhanced the weight gain of finisher FUNAAB Alpha broiler chickens.