Growth performance, nutrients digestibility and economy of feed conversion of broiler chickens fed diets containing cowpea milling waste and plantain peel meal mixture.

Abstract

A total of 144 one-day-old Arbor Acre chicks were used to investigate the effect of feeding diets containing cowpea milling waste and plantain peel meal mixture (CMWPPM) on the growth performance, nutrients digestibility and economy of feed conversion of broiler chickens. The birds were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design model, and consisted of 0, 10, 20 and 30 % dietary inclusion levels of CMWPPM. Each treatment was replicated three times with 12 chicks per replicate, making a total of 36 chicks per treatment. The experiment lasted for eight weeks. Nutrients digestibility studies were carried out at the 4th and 8th week of the experiment using specially-designed metabolism cages. Results showed that at the starter phase, birds on CMWPPM 0 % had significantly (P<0.05) higher feed intake, while birds on CMMPPM 20 % had significantly (P<0.05) lower feed intake than birds on the other treatments. The cost of feed and total cost of feed intake were significantly (P<0.05) higher for CMWPPM 30 % and significantly lower for CMWPPM 20 % than for the other treatments; while feed cost per kg weight gain had no significant difference across the treatments. At the finisher phase, there were no significant differences in all the growth performance parameters measured across the treatment groups. However, total cost of feed intake was significantly (P<0.05) higher for CMWPPM 10 % and significantly (P<0.05) lower for CMWPPM 20 %. The feed cost per kg weight gain was significantly (P<0.05) higher for CMWPPM 10 % and significantly (P<0.05) lower for CMWPPM 20 % and 30 % diets. Results of nutrients digestibility at the starter phase show that though dry matter, crude protein, crude fibre and nitrogen free extract digestibility were significantly (P<0.05) different across the treatments, there were no significant (P>0.05) difference in the overall total digestible nutrient across the diets. For the finisher phase, as the level of CMWPPM increased in the diets, the CP, CF, ash, lipid, NFE and TDN decreased across the treatments Therefore, it is concluded that the inclusion level of CMWPPM in the diet of broiler chickens should not exceed 20 % for optimum economy of feed conversion at the starter phase; whereas birds can be fed diets containing 30 % dietary inclusion level of CMWPPM with good economy of feed conversion at the finisher phase.