Performance and nutrient retention of finisher broilers fed graded levels of <i>Detarium microcarpum</i> (Guill and Sperr) seed meal

Abstract

The feeding trial was conducted with two hundred and twenty five 28 days old ‘Sayed’ broiler chicks randomly allocated to five dietary treatments to investigate the performance and nutrient retention response of finisher broiler chicks fed diets containing 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% cooked Detarium microcarpum seed meals (DMSM), respectively. The results of the growth performance, feed intake, feed conversion and protein efficiency ratios were similar (P>0.05) across the treatments. The percentage protein and other nutrients retention of birds fed the control and DMSM based diets did
not differ significantly (P>0.05) among the treatments but an improvement was observed with increasing DMSM inclusion in the diets. The  supplementation of GNC with DMSM however, reduced cost of feed per kg, cost of feed per kg weight gain.