EFFECTS OF AMARANTHUS SPINOSUS (GREEN) LEAF MEAL ON THE PERFORMANCE OF HUBBARD BROILER CHICKS (Ефекти на брашното од листот (зелен) на Amaranthus spinosus врз перформансите на бројлерскиte пилиња од хибридот хабард)
Emmanuel Obioha Ahaotu, Kennedy Chigozie Okorie, Abayomi Akinfemi
Department of Animal Production and Health Technology, Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo, P.M.B. 1472, Owerri, Nigeria
emmaocy@yahoo.com
A twenty eight day feeding trial was conducted with one hundred and twenty 7-day old Hubbard 2000 broiler chicks to study the effects of green leaf (Amaranthus spinosus) as a dietary energy source. Amaranthus spinosus leaves dried and ground were used to each replace wheat offal in the following dietary levels: 0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10%, respectively. The chicks were divided into five treatment groups, each group replicated four times at the rate of five chicks per replicate. The performance and organ weight characteristics were evaluated. Amaranthus spinosus leaf meals improved the mean feed intake, body weight gain and live weight of broilers. The performance of broilers in the Amaranthus spinosus leaf meal based diets was inferior to the control. Amaranthus spinosus caused significant proportionate growth in % daily weight (p < 0.05) and carcass evaluation (p < 0.05). Utilization of Amaran- thus spinosus significantly increased (p < 0.05) the % live weight of the abdominal fat thus improving the nutritive value of the meat. The aim of this research was to determine the response of Amaranthus spinosus leaf meal on the organ weight characteristics and performance of Hubbard starter broilers.
Keywords: Hubbard broiler chicks; Amaranthus spinosus; leaf meal; wheat offal; performance; organ weightovi
|
