GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF BROILER FINISHER BIRDS FED DIETS CONTAINING DIFFERENT FAT SOURCES

Abstract

A four-week study was conducted to determine the effect of four different fat sources on growth performance of broiler birds. One hundred and twenty day-old broiler chicks were randomly divided into five groups of 24 birds each and assigned to five treatments in a completely randomized design (CRD). The dietary treatments consisted of 1% added fat from four different sources as follows: T1, diet containing no oil; T2 diet containing 1% palm oil; T3, diet containing 1% soybean oil; T4, diet containing 1% palm kernel oil and T5, diet containing 1% groundnut oil. Each treatment was replicated three times with 8 birds per replicate. The response parameters studied were daily feed intake and daily weight gain, while feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio were calculated from weight gain and feed intake values. Results showed that dietary fat type affected significantly (P<0.05) body weight gain as well as feed efficiency in birds fed the palm kernel oil diet compared with those fed the other diets. It was concluded that addition of vegetable fat from palm kernel oil and groundnut oil in broiler diets enhanced the growth performance of birds.