Global Journal of Biology, Agriculture & Health Sciences

Abstract

Performance and economic parameters of broiler chickens fed baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) seed meal as replacement for soyabean meal in semi-arid zone of Nigeria

Abdulazeez H , Mohammed U , Jiddah MAA

This study was carried out for eight weeks to investigate the effect of replacing soyabean meal with baobab seed meal in the diet of broiler chickens. Two hundred and twenty five (225) day-old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments at both starter and finisher phases. At each phase, 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the soya bean in the diets were replaced with baobab seed meal (BSM); Each treatment was replicated thrice with 15 birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). At the starter phase, feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) showed no significant difference (p>0.05) across dietary treatments. Significant (p<0.05) difference was however observed for feed intake at the finisher phase. Body weight gain per bird for both starter and finisher phases showed no significant difference. FCR showed no significant difference at the starter phase. At the finisher phase however, significant difference was observed. Birds on (25%) BSM consumed less feed (2.47 g/bird/day) to gain a unit weight, Birds on (75%) and (100%) BSM levels had significantly (p<0.05) poorer FCR than birds on (25% BSM). The cost benefit analysis showed that birds fed 0% BSM were the poorest in terms of cost-cutting measure. This study revealed that broiler chickens fed diets that contained BSM as well as those that received no BSM in their diets showed identical performance. It therefore suggests the dietary substitution of BSM at 100% for both the starter and finisher phases as most appropriate for optimum performance.

Published Date: 2019-02-04; Received Date: 2018-12-10