Performance of broiler chickens administered graded levels of bitter kola (<i>Garcinia kola</i>, Heckel) as feed additive

Abstract

A study of 28 days (4 weeks) was carried out at the Poultry Section of Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port-Harcourt Rivers State- Nigeria, to determine the effect of bitter kola (Garcinia kola, Heckel) powder as a growth promoter in broiler chicken diets. One hundred and forty-four (144) unsexed one day-old Anak strain broiler chicks were subjected to various concentrated levels of bitter kola at T₁ (control), T₂ (5g/kg feed), T₃ (10g/kg feed), T₄ (15g/kg feed), respectively using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD), with 36 4 birds/treatment and 12 birds/replicate. The parameters evaluated were weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and cost production. Data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results obtained indicated significant effect (P<0.05) in all the growth parameters evaluated. The mean total feed intake was  12.00kg, 11.85kg, 12.50kg and 11.55kg respectively for T₁ , T₂ , T₃ and T₄ . Mean total weight gain was highest in T₄ (2.91kg) 1 2 3 4 4 and least in T ₁(2.57kg). On feed conversion ratio, T recorded the best with 3.97. It was 1 4 therefore advocated that bitter kola should be included in broiler diets as  a feed additive to improve broiler chicken performance.

Keywords: Bitter kola, Broiler chicken, feed intake, Weight gain, Production cost