Utilization of Rubber Seed Meal as a Protein Supplement in Broiler Finisher Rations

Abstract

A feeding triai was conducted to evaluate the performance of finisher broiler cbicks fed diets containing different levels of partially defatted rubber seed meal as a replacement for groundnut cake. Four isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets (A, B, C and D) were formulated using groundnut cake (GNC) as the reference protein source; and 10, 15 and 20% of the GNC in the control diet (A) were replaced with rubber seed meal (RSM) in rations B, C and D, respectively. No signilicant differences (P>0.05) were observed in feed intake, growth rate, feed efficiency and protein efficiency ratio among the birds on the different diets. However, tbe dressed weight and dressing percentage and total edible meat to bone ratio showed significant (P < 0.05) differences. The results indicated that replacement of GNC with RSM at levels studied, did not significantly depress the performance of broiler finishers but was quite bcneficild in terms of economics of production.

Keywords: Rubber Seed Meal, Protein, Broiler