Cassava Leaf Meal and Exogenous Enzyme as Supplements in Broiler Finisher Diets

Abstract

In a 4-week trial, seventy four-week old broiler chicks of Anak strain were randomly allocated to 7 experimental diets. Each dietary treatment had 5 replicates with 2 birds each making a total of 10 birds per diet. Diet 1 was the control diet with 15% level of groundnut cake (GNC). But in diets 2, 3, and 4 there was partial replacement of GNC with CLM by 33.33%, 50% and 66.67% such that the levels of cassava leaf meal (CLM) supplementation were 5%, 7.5% and 10% but in addition Avizyme® (an exogenous commercial polysaccharidase) was added to the diets at the rate of 100g kg-1. The birds were fed and given water ad libitum for 4 weeks.


Feed intake was similar for birds on all the experimental diets but enzyme supplementation significantly (P<0.05) improved feed intake. Body weight gain was significantly (P<0.05) increased with CLM and enzyme supplementation through improved efficiency of food utilization and feed conversion. Among the organs and carcass parts, only the liver and breasts recorded significant (P<0.05) increases in their weights following CLM and enzyme supplementation. The blood haematological parameters were not significantly (P>0.05) affected. CLM and enzyme supplementation produced a reduction in weekly cost of feed/bird and the weekly feed cost/weight gain of birds.


Results of the study suggest that broiler finisher diets can have up to 66.67% of its GNC replaced with CLM (i.e. 10% CLM of diet). Addition of an exogenous enzyme to such diets further enhanced the performance of the birds with a beneficial reduction in the cost of feeding them.


Trop. Vet. Vol. 20(3) 2002: 172-180