Performance characteristics of broiler chicks fed kidney bean as replacement for two conventional legumes

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of replacing soybean meal and groundnut cake meal with cooked and decorticated kidney bean seed meals on the performance characteristics of broilers. One hundred and eighty day old broiler chicks of Anak strain were raised on six experimental diets. The processed kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) meals were incorporated at the rate of 200g/kg of feed. The diets were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric. Each diet was fed to a group of 30 birds for a period of 56 days. There were significant (P <0.05) differences among treatment groups in body weight and feed conversion ratio. The group fed decorticated kidney bean meal showed depressed weight gain and poor feed conversion ratio. There were no significant (P > 0.05) differences in feed intake among the treatment groups. Apparent digestibility of crude protein, ether extract, crude fibre, ash and nitrogen free extract differed significantly (P < 0.05) among the treatments.

Key words: Legumes; processing; anti-nutritional factors; performance

Moor Journal of Agricultural Research Vol.4(2) 2003: 236-241