Biochemical and Heamatological Indices of Broiler Chickens fed Differently Processed Legume Seed Meals

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the implications of feeding broiler chickens with mucuna beans processed by simple domestic methods on the performance, haematological and biochemical parameters. Differently processed bean meals namely dehulling (DUMM), dehulling and cooked (DCMM), soaked and cooked (SCMM_I) prolonged soaking and cooking (SCMM_II) and toasting (TMM) mucuna meals were fed to two hundred and seventy 1 – day old broiler chicks of Anak strain. The birds were divided into six groups of 45 birds per group. Each group was further sub divided to 3 replicates of 15 birds and allocated to six dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. Maize – soybean meal served as control diet. Processed mucuna meal was added to the diet 200g/kg of feed at the expense of soybean meal in the control diet. All diets formulated were isocaloric and iso-nitrogenous. Feed intake was not influenced by the dietary treatments (P>0.05). Average daily gain (ADG) was significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments. Growth was depressed in birds fed dehulled mucuna meal compared to other dietary treatments. Compared with DUMM, there was significant improvement in ADG in bird fed heat treated mucuna meal. Feed conversion efficiency was significantly improved (P<0.05) in birds fed aqueous heated meals (DCMM, SCMM_I and SCMM_II) compared with those that received DUMM and TMM diets. Dietary treatments significantly (P<0.05) affect blood cellular components. The PCV, Hb, and RBC of broilers chickens fed DUMM were reduced with increased MCV and MCH values compared to other treatments. Serum total protein and globulin were affected by the dietary treatments (P<0.05). Values obtained in birds fed SCMM_I, SCMM_II, DCMM and TMM were similar and significantly lower than those that received the control and DUMM diets. The result of this study revealed that aqueous heat treatment (cooking) was more effective in improving the nutritive values of mucuna bean meals compared to dehulling and toasting.

Keywords: Mucuna bean, Processing, Performance, Haematology, Biochemical