Response Of Finishing Broilers To Graded Levels Of Heat Treated Solvent Extracted Thevetia Oil

Abstract

The experiment reported herein considered the effect of using solvent extracted thevetia oil which was subjected to heat treatment at 110°C for 25 minutes. Four experimental diets consisting of a basal diet and three other diets in which 2.5, 5.0 and 10% of the control diet was replaced by the thevetia oil were formulated and led to broilers during the finishing stage (4 - 8 weeks). Eighty broilers were individually weighed and randomly divided into four groups of 20 birds each and these were further divided into 4 replicates of 5 birds each. The four groups were then randomly allocated to the four dietary treatments. Feed intake and Feed: Gain improved with increase in thevetia oil concentration (P<0.05). However, there was no significant effect of the dietary treatment on weight gain. Increasing the concentration of thevetia oil improved the retention of both protein and fat (P < 0.05). It was concluded that solvent extracted thevetia oil will serve as a valuable feed ingredient for finishing broiler if a mild heat treatment is employed since some of the toxic compounds in it are probably thermolabile.

Keywords: Thevetia oil, heat processed, broiler performance