EFFECT OF FERMENTED BAMBARA GROUNDNUTS AND MORINGA OLEIFERA LEAF MEAL ON THE ORGAN CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKENS

Abstract

The effect of fermented bambara nuts and Moringa oleifera leaves meal (MOLM) on the organ morphology of broilers was examined using a total number of one hundred and eighty (180) day old Arbor-Acres breed of broiler chickens. The birds were randomly divided into four (4) treatments replicated thrice with 15 birds per replicate in a complete randomized design (CRD) as follows: Treatment 1 has fermented bambara nuts with MOLM, treatment 2 has fermented bambara nut with premix, treatment 3 has raw bambara nut with MOLM and treatment 4 raw bambara nut with premix. The birds were kept in a deep litter system while feed and water were provided to the birds daily and all standard routine management practices were strictly observed throughout the experiment period. After the feeding trails, the relative’s internal organs measurements were taken. The result reveals no significant (p>0.05) variations between gizzard with content, empty gizzard, liver, kidney, heart, lungs, spleen, intestinal length, and intestine weight without content in the internal organs except for the intestine with content. Perhaps, the insignificant results might be due to rearing the birds on deep litter system of production. Therefore, future research may be required on this topic using battery cage system of production.