PERFORMANCE AND NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY OF BROILER BIRDS FED DIETS CONTAINING YEAST AND INORGANIC COPPER

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the response of broiler chicks to varying dietary levels of yeast and inorganic copper as growth promoters. A total of 120 day old Broiler birds were used for the study. The study lasted for eight weeks. The broiler chicks were randomly allocated to four treatment groups and fed diets containing four levels of copper and yeast been at constant level(0g Yeast + 0g Copper, 32.5g Yeast + 25.0g copper, 32.5g Yeast + 37.5g copper and 32.5g Yeast + 50g copper respectively per 25kg of diet.) Each group was replicated three times with 10birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The result showed that Significant (P<0.05) differences occurred among treatments in most of the parameters studied. Broiler birds fed 32.5g of yeast + 37.5g of inorganic copper per 25kg of feed performed better in the starter Phase with body weight gain (BWG) of 722.61g, feed conversion ratio(FCR) of 1.27g,cost© of ₦93.54, better CP and CF utilization when compared with other test groups. The result reveals that up to 32.5g of yeast + 37.5g of inorganic copper should be incorporated per 25kg of broiler diets as feed additive, to enhance growth and well-being of broiler birds.