Growth Response of Broiler Chickens Fed Diets Containing Blood Meal with Enzyme Supplementation as a Replacement for Fish Meal

Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the growth response of broiler chickens fed diets containing blood meal with enzyme supplementation as a replacement for fishmeal. A total of two hundred and forty (240) day old broiler birds with average initial weight of 60.00g were used. The birds were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments with three replicates of 20 birds each in a completely randomized design. The experimental diets were T1 (the control), T2 (0% blood meal and 10% fish meal without enzyme), T3 (5% blood meal and 5% fish meal with enzyme) and T4 (10% blood meal 0% fish meal with enzyme). The diets were compounded to be iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous. Feed and water were given ad-libitum. The result showed that in the starters phase, there was significant (p<0.05) difference in all the parameters measured except in the feed to gain ratio. Treatment 3 recorded the highest value in all the parameters including mortality while the control recorded the least. In the finishers phase, it was shown that there was no significant difference in the final weight and the average daily weight gain except in feed intake, feed to gain ratio and feed cost per kg gain which showed a significant (p<0.05) difference. Treatment 3 also gave better result compared to the other treatments. There was no mortality in this phase. This result showed that blood meal can be used with enzymes supplementation up to 10% in the diets of broilers without any adverse effect on growth performance. Key Word: Enzyme, Feed intake, Weight gain, Feed cost.