Performance Evaluation of Sasso Chickens that Fed on Rations formulated from Locally Available Feed Ingredients around Nekemte Area, Western Ethiopia

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted to evaluate feed intake, growth performance,
carcass characteristics and profitability of rearing Sasso chickens that fed rations
made from locally available feed ingredients around Nekemte area, western
Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted with a total of 120 male Sasso T44 chickens
at the age of 42 days. The chicks were randomly assigned to the four dietary
treatments of T1 (diet formulated from maize, non-toasted soybean, lupine, noug seed
cake, limestone, salt (MSL));T2 (diet formulated from wheat, non-toasted ground
soybean, non-toasted ground lupine, noug seed cake, limestone, salt and premix
(WSL)); T3 (diet formulated from maize, wheat, non-toasted ground soybean, non-
toasted ground lupine, noug seed cake, limestone, salt and premix (MWS)] and T4
[Commercial ration (CR), positive control]. The dietary treatments for growers and
finishers were formulated from same feed sources nearly an isocaloric (3600 and
3500 kcal/kg DM and ME, respectively) and iso-nitrogenous (19 and 18% CP,
respectively). The treatments were replicated three times with 30 chickens per
treatment. The General Linear Model (GLM) Procedures of the Statistical Analysis
System (SAS, 2008) was used to analyze the data. Average daily feed intake and all
growth parameters were significantly affected (p < 0.05) by the dietary treatments.
The highest feed intake was recorded in chickens that fed CR (151.7 g/day) while the
least was for those fed on MSL (135.4 g/day). Similarly, chickens fed on CR and
MWS attained the highest final body weight (BW) of 4048.3 g and 3928.1 g,
respectively. The highest eviscerated carcass yields were recorded for those chickens
fed on CR (2874.7 g) and MWS (2827.0 g) while those fed on MSL (2138.3 g) and
WSL (2197.3 g) attained the least. The highest dressing percentages were obtained
from those fed on CR (72.7%) and MWS (72.0%) whereas those fed on MSL
(64.0%), and WSL (64.0%) showed the least. From the results of the current study, it
can be concluded that MWS can be used as an alternative feed source in Sasso
chicken for meat purpose without any adverse effects on feed intake and growth, and
for better profitability of Sasso chickens according to this experiment