Performance Characteristics And Muscle Fat Contents Of Broiler Chicken Finishers Fed Diets Containing Palm Oil Sludge In Partial Replacement For Maize

Abstract

This study was carried out to asses the effect of substituting maize at 10, 20, 30 and 40% of energy supplied by maize in a control diet (500 g/kg maize based) with energy from palm oil sludge (POS) on performance, muscle fat content and cost of production of 4-week old broiler chickens. A total of 200 starter shaver starbo broilers were randomly allotted to the 5 diets at 10 birds per replicate and 4 replicates per treatment. the diets were iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric. the feeding trial lasted 4 weeks during which weekly feed consumption and group live weights were measured. sixteen birds per treatment were sacrificed and dissected to assess the belly fat and total lipid contents of selected muscle.
Final live weight, weight gain and feed conversion ratio of birds did not differ significantly (P0.05). feed intake was significantly influenced (P<0.05) by the dietary treatments and it increased from 147.52 to 155.98 g/bird/day with increasing levels of POS in the diets. The belly fat content increased from 13.38 to 24.35 g/kg live weight as dietary levels of POS increased (P<0.05). A similar trend of increasing breast, drumstick and thigh muscle fat with increasing levels of dietary POS was obtained but was only significant (P<0.05) for the thigh muscle. cost of feed and feed cost per kg weight gain decreased as levels of dietary POS increased. the cost reduction between the control and palm oil containing diets were N3.59, N9.20, N18.82 and N29.09 for diets with energy substituted at 10, 20, 30 and 40% with POS respectively (4.04, 8.08, 12.12 and 16.16% dietary inclusion of POS. it was concluded that 8% dietary inclusion of POS was most beneficial considering muscle fat and economic returns.


Keywords: Palm oil sludge, maize, broiler chickens, performance, carcass fat

Journal of Agriculture, Forestry and the Social Sciences Vol. 4 (2) 2006: pp. 162-169