Effects of Allzyme SSF^® supplementation of differently processed pigeon pea (<i>Cajanus cajan</i>) seeds on performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens.

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Allzyme SSF® supplementation of differently processed pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) seeds on growth performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. Two hundred and seventy (270) day old broiler chicks of Abor-Acre strain were fed six dietary treatments in which the control diet (TI) had no pigeon pea seed meal while other diets supplemented with Allzyme SSF® contained 30% of pigeon pea seed meal processed by different methods. The enzyme was applied at 200g/tone of feed as recommended by the manufacturer. The birds were randomly assigned to six dietary treatments and were further replicated three times with 15 birds per replicate in a complete randomized design. They were fed six experimental diets containing 23% crude protein (CP) during the starter and 20% CP during the finisher phase. The results obtained showed that birds fed the control diet had significantly (P<0.05) better performance than those fed dietary treatments containing Allzyme SSF® supplemented differently processed pigeon pea seed meal in the starter phase. However, daily feed intake was not significantly (P>0.05) higher for birds fed fermented pigeon pea seeds than other dietary treatments. In the finisher phase, no significant differences (P>0.05) were observed among the birds fed the control diet and those fed Allzyme SSF® supplemented PPSM based dietary treatments for all the performance parameters measured except feed intake. o significant differences (P>0.05) were also observed in the carcass characteristics of birds across all the dietary treatments. It was observed that 30% dietary level of inclusion of pigeon pea seeds processed by soaking + fermentation methods were better than all the other pigeon pea seeds based dietary treatments. Thus, it can be concluded that at 30% dietary level of inclusion PPSM processed by soaking and fermentation with Allzyme SSF® supplementation will enhance better feed utilization and performance with no adverse effects on carcass characteristics of broilers

Keywords: Pigeon pea seed meal, Allzyme SSF®, supplementation, performance, broiler chicks, carcass characteristics.