Growth Performance and Feed Conversion Efficiency of Indigenous Chicken Fed on Diet Supplemented with Termites (Macrotermes bellicosus)

Abstract

In view of the emerging challenges of climate change and population growth, the need to ensure consumer health safety among other factors is paramount; this practice has not been standardised, and the health risks and impacts on the environment arising from the practice are not known. While the global consumption of chicken products especially chicken meat drastically increased over the years and the trend is expected to continue. Much of the increase in demand is in the developing countries coupled with demand for the four traditional feed ingredients; maise meal, soya bean meal, fish meal, and meat meal. In all three poultry production systems that are extensive, semi-intensive and intensive, a wide range of alternative feedstuffs should be available for use. Expanding populations will create greater demand for chicken products, and the importance of feed industry resources and production systems will increase. This therefore calls for a need to enhance efforts towards increased chicken productivity. This study, therefore, evaluated the growth performance, feed conversion efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of feed supplementation termite Macrotermes bellicosus for indigenous chicken diets. Three groups of twenty IC were placed on diets comprising prepared feeds with different termite inclusion levels (0%, 2.5% and 5%) for each group for six weeks. Results reveal that the termite supplementation provides high crude protein content (43.36%), which leads to enhanced weight gain but no significant differences in the FCR of ICs compared to conventional feeds. Supplementation at different levels offers varying outcomes regarding feed intake: IC on a diet T3 had a lower feed intake compared to T2 but registered higher FBW and SGR. The use of termites contributes to smallholder farms’ food security by providing a cheaper alternative to commercial poultry feeds; and also increases the market value of IC, thus, increasing the profitability of IC production