Hematological parameters, carcass yield and guts dimension of broiler chicken fed African locust bean (<i>Parkia biglobosa</i>) fruit pulps meal as partial replacement for maize

Abstract

The effect of feeding processed African locust bean fruit pulps (ALFP) meal partially replacing maize on the haematological parameters, carcass and guts dimension of finisher broiler chickens Was investigated. Two hundred finisher broiler chickens were randomly allotted to five experimental diets in which ALFP replaced maize at 0% (control), 20% (raw), 20% (fermented), 20% (cooked) and 20% (toasted) as dietary energy sources tagged as diets 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. The experimental diets were replicated four times with 10 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design (CRD). At the end of the experiment which lasted for 28 days, blood samples were taken from four birds per treatment for haematological analysis. Forty birds were randomly selected of ten birds per treatment and starved for 12 hours and final live weights were measured before slaughtering. The results of the haematological parameters showed that all values obtained for white blood cells, red blood cells, haemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration were all significantly (P < 0.05) affected, except the haematocrits. All carcass and guts dimensions were not significantly affected (P<0.05) by the experimental diets except the dressed percent, carcass weight, gizzard weight, abdominal weight and lungs weight. The differences observed do not follow a particular pattern and may not be attributable to dietary treatments. The study revealed that ALFP can be used as dietary energy sources to replace maize up to 20% in the diets of broiler chickens without adverse effects on their haematological parameters, carcass yield and guts dimensions.