PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS ADMINISTERED GRADED LEVELS OF BITTER KOLA (GARCINIA KOLA, HECKEL) AS FEED ADDITIVE

Abstract

A study of 28 days (4 weeks) was carried out at the Poultry Section of Rivers State University, NkpoluOroworukwo, Port-Harcourt Rivers State-Nigeria, to determine the effect of bitter kola (Garcinia kola, Heckel) powder as a growth promoter in broiler chicken diets. One hundred and forty-four (144) unsexed day-old Anak strain broiler chicks were subjected to various concentrated levels of bitter kola at T1 (control), T2 (5g/kg feed), T3 (10g/kg feed), T4 (15g/kg feed) respectively using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD), with 36 birds/treatment and 12 birds/replicate. The parameters evaluated were weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and cost production. Data collected were subjected to Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA). Results obtained indicated significant effect (P<0.05) in all the growth parameters evaluated. Although the best production such as reduced feed intake, improve growth rate, feed conversion ratio and cost of production, were recorded in birds administered 15g bitter kola /kg feed, however all the treated groups presented better results over the T1 (control). It was therefore advocated that bitter kola should be included in broiler diets as a feed additive to improve broiler chickens performance.