Effects of feeding different levels of cooked and sun dried fish offal on carcass traits of growing Rhode Island Red chicks

Abstract

Fourteen days old Rhode Island Red chicks were used to evaluate effects of processed fish offal (fishmeal) on DM intake (DMI), body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR = DMI/BWG) and carcass traits. Ten chicks were assigned to each of 3 replicates of 6 diets (T(1), T(2), T(3), T(4), T(5), T(6), containing 0, 3.32, 6.64, 9.96, 13.28 and 16.6% fishmeal, respectively, having 18.44-19.82% CP). After 77 days of ad-lib feeding, 3 male and 3 female chicks per treatment were fasted overnight, killed and body parts weighed. T(1) had lowest but T(6) highest (p < or = 0.001) daily intakes of 68.5 and 77.0 g DM head(-1), 13.3 and 14.8 g CP head(-1) and 231 and 243 kcal ME head(-1), respectively. BWG (10.7 g head(-1) d(-1)), FCR (6.79), weights of carcass (569 g), breast (160 g) and total edible (676 g) and dressing % (66%) of T(1) (0% fishmeal) was smaller (p < or = 0.001) than those of fishmeal groups {12.8 to 13.5 g head(-1) d(-1); 5.83 to 6.35 g; 671 to 729 g; 196 to 219 g; 807 to 876 g and 67 to 68%, respectively}. Best results of BWG, FCR and carcass traits were obtained at 9.96% fishmeal inclusion level; however acceptable results could be obtained up to 12.5%.