Evaluation of poultry visceral offal meal as a substitute for fish meal in grower pullets' diets

Abstract

The effects of replacing fish meal (FM) with graded levels of poultry visceral offal meal (PVOM) in five grower pullets diets were investigated in a 4 week study using 200 Isa Brown pullets from 14 to 18 weeks of age. There were four replicates per test diet, with 10 birds per replicate. Diets A (control) contained 4% FM as the sole source of dietary animal protein. PVOM was included in diets B,C,D and E at the levels of 1.18, 2:37, 3.55 and 4.73% of the diets to supply 25,50,75 and 100% of animal protein supplied by 4% FM in the control diet A respectively. All the test diets were isocaloric (11.8MJ ME/kg) and isonitrogenous (16% CP). There was no significant effect ( P > 0.05) of replacing dietary FM with PVOM (on an equal protein basis) on the performance parameters measured. Birds fed on diets A,B,C,D and E had similar (P > 0.05) mean daily weight gains of 14.16, 13.66, 14.65, 13.15 and 13.84g/bird respectively. The mean daily feed consumption values were 73.61, 73.27, 73.88, 72.10 and 71.76g/bird for the birds on diets A,B,C,D and E respectively while similar mean feed conversion ratios of 5.21, 5.45, 5.04, 5.42 and 5.21 were also recorded for the birds on diets A,B,C,D and E respectively. It is concluded that PVOM could replace FM completely on an equal protein basis in grower pullets' diets. Cost of feed per unit of weight gain was lower on the PVOM-based diet than on the FM-based diet.

Keywords: Poultry visceral offal meal, fish meal, protein, grower pullet, performance.