Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Organs Weight of Broiler Chickens Fed Graded Levels of White Guinea Corn (Sorghum bicolor, Linn.) as a Replacement for Dietary Maize

Abstract

An eight-week experiment was carried out to evaluate the growth performance, carcass characteristics and organs weight of broiler chickens fed graded levels of white guinea corn (WGC) as replacement for dietary maize. Five experimental diets were formulated and designated as T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5. Diet 1 (0% WGC) served as control, while diets 2, 3, 4 and 5 contained 25, 50, 75 and 100% levels of WGC replacing maize respectively. A total of 225 day- old Marshal Broiler chicks were randomly allotted to the five treatments. Each treatment had 45 birds replicated thrice with 15 birds each in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Feeds and water were provided ad libitum. The results of the experiment showed that average daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio of birds fed WGC up to 75% were significantly (p 0.05) different across the treatment groups. All the carcass parameters measured were significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments with diet containing 75%WGC better than other diets. Also, there were significant (p<0.05) differences in the weights of liver, intestine and intestinal length. It was concluded that WGC could conveniently replace up to 75% of the maize in broiler diets without any adverse effect on growth performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens.