Abstract
An 8-week feeding trial was carried out to evaluate the effect of graded levels of synthetic methionine on the growth performance, blood and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. A total of 120 day-old chicks of Amobyn strain with mean body weight of 36.67g were randomly divided into four groups of 30 chicks each to constitute treatments T1 (0% control), T2 (0.20% methionine), T3 (0.40% methionine) and T4 (0.60% methionine), respectively. Each group was further divided into three replicates of 10 birds each in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Feed and water were provided ad libitum and all the birds were managed on a deep litter floor under the same environmental conditions for 56 days. All data were subjected to One- way analysis of variance and significant mean values were separated using Duncan Multiple Range Test. The results obtained for starter broiler chickens showed that total feed intake, weekly feed intake, daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio were significantly (P 0.05) differences between dietary treatments on all parameters. Carcass characteristics showedsignificant (P<0.05) differences between dietary treatment in pre- slaughter weight, lungs weight, intestinal length, intestinal weight as well as weight of spleen and oesophagus. Therefore, this study concludes that syntheticmethionine can be included in the diets of broiler chickens up to 0.60% without detrimental effects on their growth performance, blood and carcass characteristics.Keywords: Synthetic methionine, chicken, growth, blood, carcass
Highlights
Broiler chicken production has remained one of the viable options of achieving sustainable and rapid production of high quality animal protein to meet the demands of Nigerian teeming population (Apata and Ojo, 2000)
The results showed that birds with 0.40% methionine was significantly higher (p>0.05) than the rest of the treatment group except birds on diet with 0.20% in terms of feed intake
The results revealed that total weight gain, average weekly weight gain, and average daily weight gain, total feed intake, average weekly feed intake, average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio were significantly (p
Summary
Broiler chicken production has remained one of the viable options of achieving sustainable and rapid production of high quality animal protein to meet the demands of Nigerian teeming population (Apata and Ojo, 2000). The major constraint to poultry production is the high cost of energy and protein concentrates. Church (1991) observed that 75% of the cost of raising or maintaining poultry is attributable to feeds and feeding. Feed cost alone in poultry enterprise is about 70% of the total cost of production (Ogunfowora, 1984) which has been attributed to over dependence on the conventional plant protein feed stuffs such as soybean and groundnut cake (Emenalon and Udedibie, 1998). Poultry nutrition has improved tremendously for the past few decades. In spite of advances made on the nutritional aspect, a lot of nutritional problems are still unsolved and serve as a challenge to investigators in this field worldwide
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