EFFECTS OF AFRICAN WALNUT (Tetracarpidium conophorum) LEAF AND ITS EXTRACT ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS AT STARTER AND FINISHER PHASES

Résumé

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of African walnut (Tetracarpidium conophorum) leaf and its extract on the growth performance of broiler chickens. Five experimental diets were formulated with the inclusion of Tetracarpidium conophorum Leaf Powder (TCLP) and its Extract (TCLE). The diets were made as followings: (T1) control and basal diet; (T2) T1 + 250mg TCLP kg/diet; (T3) T1 + 500mg TCLP kg/diet; (T4) T1 + 25mg TCLE kg/diet; (T5) T1 + 50mg TCLE kg/diet. This study was conducted from 7 to 49 days of age. A total of 135 seven days old, unsexed broiler chickens were used. They were individually weighed and randomly distributed into five dietary treatments; each treatment included three replicates each with a total of nine birds per replicate on the basis of their weight. Data were collected on growth performance and subjected to one way of analysis of variance in a Completely Randomized Design. At the starter phase, birds fed the control diet had significantly (p<0.05) greater average weight gain (420.55g), average feed intake (2201.45g) and lower feed conversion ratio (2.86) compared to other treatment groups. At the finisher phase, no significant (p>0.05) difference was observed on growth performance across the dietary treatments. Based on the results, it is therefore concluded that growth performance of the broiler chickens both at starter and finisher phases were not influenced by Tetracarpidium conophorum leaf powder and its extract.