The effect of replacing meat and bone meal with soybean meal on the performance and economic returns of broiler chickens

Abstract

The experiment was carried out to determine the effects of replacing meat and bone meal (MBM) with soybean meal (SBM) in starter and finisher diets on daily feed intake, body weight gain, food conversion ratio, water consumption, economic efficiency and carcass characteristics  A total of 306 day old broiler chickens were divided into six diet groups (each group with three replicates). Each replicate had 17 birds. Diet 1 was a commercial diet; diet 2 had 26% MBM; diet 3 had 6.5% SBM and 19.5% MBM; diet 4 had 13% SBM and 13% MBM; diet 5 had 19.5% SBM and 6.5% MBM and diet 6 had 26% SBM. At the end of the experiment (seven weeks), one male and female broilers were slaughtered from each replicate to evaluate the carcass development and abdominal fat. Feed intake and body weight gain of the birds were significantly (p<0.05) higher for diet 1 for the entire period of feeding, while both traits were inferior for diet 2. The highest feed conversion ratio was recorded for diet 2 (p<0.05). The rate of survival was not significantly different among treatments (p>0.05). The lowest abdominal fat percentage was observed for diet 1 and diet 6. Diet 1 comprised the highest eviscerated and breast weight percentage (p<0.05). The results of this study showed that using MBM beyond 6.5% significantly depressed the body weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio and increased cost of production.