Preliminary Study on the Potential of Ficus polita Fruits Meal as a Feed Ingredient in Broiler Diet

Abstract

The nutrition and anti-nutritional composition and performance of broiler chickens fed raw and boiled Ficus polita fruits were evaluated. The raw and boiled fruits were analyzed for nutrient and anti-nutrients. The birds were fed 0%, 7.5% raw and 7.5% boiled Ficus polita fruit meals (FPFM). The analyzed proximate composition (%) of the raw fruit meal showed that the fruit 5.23% moisture, 11.88% ash, 2.09% crude fat,10.42% crude fibre,9.44% crude protein and 66.17% carbohydrate compared with boiled fruit meal with moisture content (4.80%), crude protein (8.59%), ash (9.12%), crude fibre (9.55%), fat (0.96%) and carbohydrate (70.85%. Results of the anti-nutritional factors showed that raw Ficus polita fruits had 1.25% phytate, 0.38% oxalate, 0.18% tannin 6.50% saponin and 10.08 mg/100 g cyanogenic glycosides compared with boiled fruits which show reduction in concentrations. The growth performance and feed conversion ratio of birds fed 7.5% boiled FPFM diets was significantly (p<0.05) superior compared with birds on maize based diet and 7.5% raw FPFM diet. Feed intake was higher in birds fed 7.5% boiled FPFM than control group. Inclusion of 7.5% boiled FPFM improve utilization of diet and without adverse effect on growth performance of broiler chickens and therefore further studies is recommended to determine the effect on economy of production.