Effect of Water Soaking of Sweet Orange (<em>Citrus Sinensis</em>) Fruit Peel on its Chemical Composition and Growth Performance of Broiler Starter Chicks

Abstract

Four batches of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) fruit peel were soaked in water at 0, 12, 24 and 36 hours to produce four different samples labeled S₀, S₁₂, S₂₄ and S₃₆, respectively. These were milled and analyzed for proximate, energy, phytonutrients, vitamin C, Ca, and P. Soaking in water significantly affected (p<0.05) the proximate composition, phytonutrients, vitamin C, Ca and P contents of the peels. With the exception of limonene, the other phytonutrients, vitamin C, Ca and P decreased significantly with increased duration of soaking. Four sweet orange peel based diets namely T2, T3, T4, and T5 were compounded by replacing dietary maize in the control diet (T1) at 20% using each of the method S₀, S₁₂, S₂₄ and S₃₆, respectively. One hundred and fifty two-day old Anak broiler chicks, with an average initial body weight of 55.10 + 0.09 g were used to test the effects of the different diets on the performance of broiler chicks in a Completely Randomized Design experiment, which lasted for 5 weeks. Mean feed intake and water intake ranging from 45.10 to 52.19 g and 126.46 to 152.58 ml respectively were not significantly affected (p>0.05). Body weight gain and final body weight were significantly lower at T2 (25.02 g and 931.70 g, respectively) than the control, T3, T4 and T5, which were also not significantly different (p>0.05) from each other. The food conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly better (p<0.05) at T1 (1.67). Water: feed ratio of the sweet orange peel meal diet groups were significantly higher (p<0.05) than the control. It was concluded that water soaking reduced anti-nutrients and improved the nutritive value of sweet orange peel meal as a feedstuff in broiler starter diet.