A nutritional evaluation of water hyacinth {Eichhornia crassipes (Martius) Solms-Laubach} meal diets supplemented with Maxigrain enzyme for growing pullets

Abstract

An experiment to evaluate the nutritional value of water hyacinth meal (WHM) for pullets was conducted using two hundred and thirty four (234) 12-weeks-old growing pullets. They were randomly allotted to six dietary treatments with three replicates per treatment. Diet 1 contained 0 % WHM, with no Maxigrain® enzyme added; Diet 2 and Diet 3 contained 10 and 20 % WHM respectively, with no Maxigrain® enzyme added; Diet 4 contained 0 % WHM with Maxigrain® enzyme added while Diet 5 and Diet 6 contained 10 and 20 % WHM respectively, but with Maxigrain® enzyme added. The 2 x 3 factorial experiment lasted for six weeks, during which time the birds were fed the experimental diets ad libitum. At the end of the 17th week, a digestibility trial using the total collection method was carried out. Results show that feed intake was significantly (p<0.05) higher for birds fed the 10 % (2762.83 g) and 20 % (2750.83 g) WHM diets than for birds fed the 0 % (2601.02 g) WHM diets; but there were no significant (p>0.05) differences in feed intake between the birds fed the enzyme-supplemented diets and those without enzyme supplementation. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly lower (p<0.05) for birds fed the enzyme supplemented diets (5.76) than for birds fed diets without enzyme supplementation (6.56). Hence, WHM can be included up to 20 % in the diets of growing pullets (replacing 100 % wheat offal) with no detrimental effects on growth performance and nutrient digestibility.