Evaluation of graded levels of raw and cooked turmeric rhizome (Curcuma longa) on performance of starter broiler chicks

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of different levels of raw and cooked turmeric rhizome (Curcuma longa) on the performance of starter broiler chicks in a complete randomised design. Turmeric rhizome was washed with water and divided into two batches of 20kg each. The first batch was crushed, then sundried for 3 days. The second batch was cooked for an hour, crushed with a roller and sundried for 3 days. Both the  raw and cooked sundried turmeric rhizomes were then ground using a hammer mill to produce raw and cooked turmeric rhizome meal and were bagged respectively. Seven (7) broiler starter diets were formulated to contain raw or cooked turmeric rhizome meal at 0% (control diet), 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% levels, respectively. The diets were offered ad libitum to 189 Cobb broilers which were randomly divided into 7 dietary treatment groups,  each containing 3 replicates of 9 birds per replicate. The experiment lasted for 21days. All the routine management practices were duly observed. Daily weight gain, daily feed intake, mortality and feed conversion ratio were used as criteria of response. The results indicated that addition of  turmeric rhizome meal had no significant (p>0.05) effect on daily weight gain, daily feed intake, mortality and feed conversion ratio as compared with the control. It was evident that the different processing methods and the dietary levels used had no effect on broiler performance based on the results obtained in this study and within the circumstances of the experiments. It can be concluded that sun-dried raw and cooked turmeric rhizome meal at the dietary levels used did not significantly affect broiler starter performance.

Keywords: raw and cooked turmeric rhizome meal, broiler chicks, performance.