Performance of broiler chickens fed graded levels of poultry meat meal

Abstract

A 49 days experiment was carried out on the performance of broiler chickens fed poultry meat meal. 150 day old Arbor acre broiler chickens were divided into 5 dietary treatments of 3 replicates with 10 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. Diet 1 had 100% fishmeal as the control (T₁) while the poultry meat meal was added to diets T₂, T₃, T₄, T₅ at 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% replacing fishmeal respectively. The result obtained showed that the weight gained and average daily weight gained of broiler chickens fed Diet T₅ (100) % had the highest mean (1624.33g/bird and 33.22g/bird). The breast, drumstick, thigh and the back cut showed that birds fed diet T₅ had higher values than birds on other diets. There were significant differences (P<0.05) in the values of spleen, heart and lungs across the diets. There was progressive decrease in cost/kg of feed with increase in inclusion of poultry meat meal: T₂ (₦182.20), T₃(₦179.20), T₄(₦176:20), T₅(₦173:20). The cost of feed consumed and cost of production showed that it was costlier to produce birds on T₁ than birds on other diets with T₅ having the least cost and highest revenue (₦1756.67) and gross margin (₦906.86). It was concluded that the inclusion of poultry meat meal in broiler diet improved growth, higher carcass yield and enhanced economic values. Therefore, T₅ (100%) total replacement of fishmeal with poultry meat meal is recommended.

Keywords: poultry meat meal, broiler, fish meal