GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKENS FED VARYING LEVELS OF IRON TREE SEED MEAL (Prosopis africana)

Abstract

The research was conducted to investigate the growth performance and Carcass characteristics of Broiler Chicken fed varying levels of iron tree (Prosopis africana) seed meal. One-hundred (100) day old broiler chickens were randomly allocated to five experimental diets with inclusion levels of Prosopis africana seed meal at 0%,3.49%,7.58%,12.42%and 18.25% designated as T1 (control), T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 20 birds per treatment and each treatment was replicated two times with 10 birds per replicate. Results showed that there was significant difference in the final weight gain as well as total intake. The broiler fed control diet had the least value for both initial weight (0.26kg) and final weight (4.3kg) while the highest final weight of 4.65kg was recorded for broiler chickens fed 12.42% Prosopis africana (PASM). Feed intake was significantly (P<0.05) lower in broiler chicken fed control diet (3637.89g) of which the highest feed intake was observed in broiler chicken fed both 7.5% and 18.25% PASM (3704.23 and 3802.23g), respectively. It was concluded that the dietary inclusion of up to 18.42% PASM in broiler chicken diet is beneficial as it shows a better and relatively improved feed intake, growth performance and carcass characteristics of the broiler chicken. Additionally, broilers chicken fed a diet supplemented with PASM at a rate of 7.58 showed the most promising

results in terms of growth performance