Growth Performance of Broiler Chicken Fed Varying Levels of Tiger Nut (Cyperus Esculentus L) Seedmeal

Abstract

An investigation into the replacement value of tiger nut seed meal as substitute for maize in diets of broiler chickens was studied. Four different diets were formulated such that tiger nut replaced maize at 0% (T1), 25% (T2), 50% (T3), 75% (T4) and 100% (T5) respectively in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The control diet (T1) contained no tiger nut. One Hundred and Fifty day-old broiler chicks procured from the University farm was used for the experiment to determine the effect of the test diets on dietary proximate compositions, feed intake, weight gain, and body weight changes, feed conversion ratio, carcass cut parts and organ proportions in a 49-day trial. The broiler chicks were arranged into the 5 dietary treatments, each containing 3 replicates with 30 birds per dietary treatment and 10 birds per replicate. Result indicated that the control diet did not vary from the test diets in proximate composition. The crude fat, crude fiber and metabolizable energy portrayed an increasing trend whereas, the crude protein, ash and nitrogen free extract portrayed a decreasing trend as the level of tiger nut increased. The experimental diets showed no statistical difference in final weight (FW), average body weight (ABW), daily weight gain (DWG), daily feed intake (DFI), and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) and percent mortality. Final weight was abnormally low in T3 (1116.43 g), but highest in T4 (1578.89 g) and declined again in T5 (1419.05 g). The decline in T3 was attributed to possible effects of non-dietary factors whereas, that of T5 may be connected with fiber and ant nutritional factors. T4 and T5 recorded highest feed intake (172.06 g/day) in spite of their higher metabolizable energy values (3028.00 and 3065.00 KJ ME) respectively; thus, implicating the crude fiber, whose dilution effect on T4 and T5 elicited more intake in order for the birds to attain their energy requirement. The test treatments increased FCR above that of the control.T3 recorded highest FCR (6.28) accompanied with high mortality percent (23.81) which is attributed to non-dietary factors. T5 recorded the highest mortality percent (38.10) which may be due to the effect of the diet, particularly the fiber content. DFI, FCR and mortality percent increased with increased level of the tiger nut disregarding the abnormality in T3. Final weight, ABW and DWG increased optimally to the 75% level disregarding the abnormal values in T3. 75% tiger nut inclusion in broiler chicken diet is recommended in this study as it recorded lowest values in mortality and FCR and highest values in FW, ABW and DWG which compared well with the control showing better utilization of fiber at this level.