Replacement value of rubber seed (<i>Hevea brasiliensis</i>) meal for full-fat soya bean meal on performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters of broilers.

Abstract

Rubber seed meal (RSM) contains about 28.63% CP but also high in CF (20%). Rubber seed cake was extruded after the extraction of rubber seed oil from the Rubber Seed oil processing Department of Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria, Benin-City. The rubber seed cake was then milled to produce RSM. Soya bean meal (SBM) was prepared by processing sun-dried soya bean seeds in a combined toaster, grinder and extruder. The experiments reported in this study were to investigate the utilization of RSM as a replacement for SBM in the diets of broilers. In the first experiment, 225 seven days’-old broiler chicks of Anak strain were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 which had 100% SBM: 0% RSM, 75% SBM: 25% RSM, 50% SBM: 50% RSM, 25% SBM: 75% RSM and 0% SBM: 100% RSM respectively. The CP level was set at 24% and energy level at 2900kcal/kg. The birds were further sub-divided into three replicates of 15 birds each. The trial lasted for 28 days. In the second experiment, design and feed formulation were similar but the CP level was set at 21% and energy at 2700kcal/kg. 225 five weeks old broiler chicks from the first experiment were fed the broiler finisher diets. At the end of the 9th week, 2 birds were randomly selected from each of the replicates for carcass, organ weight and haemotological evaluation. In experiment 1, feed intake of the birds on diets containing RSM up to 75% inclusion level compared favourably with the control (0%RSM). In the second experiment, feed intake increased significantly (P<0.05) with increase level of RSM inclusion up to 75%. Body weight gain, FCR and nutrients digestibility of birds fed diets containing RSM up to 50% inclusion level compared favourably with the control (0%RSM). The relative dressing percentage, heart weight and haemological parameters of the birds fed different levels of RSM based diets were comparable. The weight of the gizzard increased significantly (P<0.05) with increase level RSM inclusion. Dietary inclusion of RSM reduced the cost of producing 1kg of feed. Therefore, RSM can be used to replace SBM at 50% inclusion level in the diets of broilers without any deleterious effect.

Keywords: Rubber seed meal, Performance, Carcass characteristics, Blood parameters, Broilers.