Abstract
The study was designed to evaluate the performance of pullet chicks fed graded levels of processed horse eye bean meal (HEBM) as partial replacement for soybean meal. The cracked beans were subjected to three processing methods viz: soaking in plain water for 48 hours, cooking for 90 minutes, and toasting on open fire at 100oC after sundrying. The processed beans were milled to pass through a four mm mesh and used for diet formulation. Six experimental diets were formulated each at brooding and rearing phase, with diet 1 as control, while soybean meal in the control diets were replaced with the horse eye bean meal (HEBM) at 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75% in diets 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, respectively. Three hundred and sixty (360) day-old Lohman black pullet chicks were used at brooding phase, while two hundred and seventy (270), 56 day – old chicks were used during the rearing phase of the experiment. Chicks were divided into six (6) groups on weight equalization bases and groups randomly placed on one of the six diets. The feeding trials lasted for eight weeks at brooding stage and twelve weeks during rearing period. Data generated were statistically analysed using analyses of variance procedures. The results revealed that level of HEBM in the diet did not significantly influenced the average daily feed intake, average daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio. Cost of feed consumed and cost per kg weight gain were significantly reduced with the inclusion of HEBM in pullet chicks’ diets. It was concluded that 45 per cent of the soybean meal could be replaced by the HEBM in diets of pullets at the chick phase while HEBM can replace 60% of the soybean meal in the pullets’ diet at rearing phase.KEYWORDS: Horse eye bean, anti-nutrients, processing techniques, pullet chicks, brooding and rearing phase.
Highlights
Intensive poultry production has been identified as one of the means of attaining animal protein sufficiency in the diet of the average Nigerian (Ani and Adiegwu 2005).Nigeria poultry industry is facing tremendous setback and is on the verge of collapse arising from high cost of poultry feed, which accounts for 70-80% of the total cost of poultry production
The high cost of poultry feed has been traced to the increasing cost of maize, soybean and groundnut which are the main conventional sources of energy and protein, respectively (Effiong et al, 2013)
The alternative vegetable protein being considered in this study is the horse eye bean (Mucuna urens) meal
Summary
Intensive poultry production has been identified as one of the means of attaining animal protein sufficiency in the diet of the average Nigerian (Ani and Adiegwu 2005).Nigeria poultry industry is facing tremendous setback and is on the verge of collapse arising from high cost of poultry feed, which accounts for 70-80% of the total cost of poultry production. The high cost of poultry feed has been traced to the increasing cost of maize, soybean and groundnut which are the main conventional sources of energy and protein, respectively (Effiong et al, 2013). Umoren et al, (2007) had reported that raw horse eye bean did not support growth of broilers and rats. This, they attributed to the presence of some anti nutritional factors which were present in the raw and cooked beans. The anti-nutritional factors in the horse eye bean meal include trypsin inhibitor, lectins, phytates, phenols, cynogenic glycosides, tannins and L- 3, 4 dihydroxyacetone (Effiong and Umoren, 2011)
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