Nutritive value of pigeon pea (<i>Cajanus cajan</i>) seeds soaked in wood ash extract as protein feedstuff for broiler chicken production

Abstract

An eight weeks feeding trial was conducted to assess the effect of feeding graded level of soaked pigeon pea meal (SPPM) in wood ash extract or solution on the growth performance, haematological and serum biochemical indices of broiler chickens. A total of 144 day-old chicks (Anak 2000) were randomly allotted to four treatment diets (1, 2, 3 and 4) in a completely randomized design. Each treatment group was replicated three times with twelve birds per replicate, thus, having thirty-six chicks per treatment group. Diet 1 contained 0% SPPM in wood ash extract for 72hours as the control diet, while diets 2, 3 and 4 were formulated to contain 25, 50 and 75% inclusions of SPPM in place of soybean meal. Results showed that the average live weight, daily weight gain and feed intake as well as protein efficiency ratio were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments at the finisher phase. Broiler chickens fed 25% SPPM based diet had a higher (P<0.05) and comparable value of live weight, weight gain and protein efficiency ratio to that recorded in the control diet at the finisher phase. The haematological and serum biochemical indices revealed that albumin and total cholesterol were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the treatment diets. The albumin value (2.2g/dl) was highest in birds fed 50% SPPM, whereas, the cholesterol value decreased (P<0.05) with increasing levels of inclusion of SPPM from 0 to 75%. It therefore implies that SPPM can be partially included in broiler diets up to 25% level with optimum growth performance and without any detrimental effect on the blood profile of broiler chickens.

Keywords: Broilers; growth, haematology, serum chemistry