GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS FED GRADED LEVELS OF SUN-DRIED CASSAVA ROOT MEAL BASED DIETS AT FINISHER PHASE (6 - 8) WEEKS

Abstract

A three weeks experiment was conducted at the finisher phase (6 - 8) weeks using sun-dried cassava root meal (SDCRM) as source of energy to determine the growth performance, pooled performance, carcass and gut characteristics of broiler chicken fed diet containing the sun-dried cassava root meal (SDCRM) and the experiment lasting for three weeks. Five isonitrogenous diet was formulated for finisher phase, maize was partly replaced with sun-dried cassava root meal (SDCRM) at 0, 20, 30, 40, and 50% levels designated as diet, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. Routine measures were strictly observed and the following growth parameters were determined: daily feed intake, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio, feed intake, and mortality. Also, carcass weight, live weight (kg), plucked weight (kg), eviscerated weight (kg), dressed (%) and liver weight (%). Data were analyzed using analysis of variance. The following performance indices: daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio, feed efficiency and mortality were not significantly (P<0.05) affected and same was observed for pooled performance, while most of the carcass and gut characteristics were significantly affected by the diet with few showing no significant difference. It is recommended that farmers should be encouraged to increase cassava production as an alternative source of energy in poultry diets when faced with adverse conditions.