Performance of chicken broilers fed with diets substituted with mulberry leaf powder

Abstract

The effect of substituting commercial broiler diet with mulberry leaf powder on feed intake, growth rate and feed conversion efficiency was studied. Treatment diets were prepared by substituting 20, 30, 40 and 50% with mulberry leaf powder to commercial broiler feed. The crude fibre and crude protein contents of the treatment diets were higher than those of the control (100% commercial feed) but the crude fat content was lower. No significant difference (p>0.05) in feed intake was observed for broilers fed with diet containing up to 30% mulberry leaf powder but significant decrease (p>0.05) was observed for broilers fed with diet of more mulberry leaf powder. Broilers fed diet containing more than 40% mulberry leaf powder also had significantly lower (p>0.05) body weight at the end of the trial. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly higher  (p>0.05) in broilers fed diet containing 40% or more mulberry leaf powder compared to other diets during week 1 and 2. No mortality was recorded in broilers fed diet containing up to 30% mulberry leaf powder. In conclusion, this study showed that mulberry leaf powder can substitute up to 30% of commercial feed without any adverse effect on the feed intake, growth, FCR and mortality of the broiler chicken. An estimated cost reduction of 24.82% for starter feed and 26.09% for grower feed was recorded.

Key words: Broiler chicken, feed intake, growth performance, mulberry leaf.