Growth performance and nutrient digestibility of broiler chicken fed diets containing varying levels of decorticated Baobab (Adansonia digitata) seed meal at the starter phase

Abstract

A total of 117 day-old broiler chicks were used to assess the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of broiler chicken fed diets containing varying levels of decorticated Adansonia digitata (Baobab) seed meal. The treatments were control (0 % dietary inclusion level), 9 % dietary inclusion level and 18 % dietary inclusion level tagged as T1, T2, and T3 respectively. The experimental design was a completely randomized design model. Each treatment was replicated three times with thirteen birds per replicate. Feed and water were supplied ad libitum. The experiment lasted for four weeks. A nutrient digestibility trial was carried out at the end of the third week of the experiment. Results showed that there were no significant (p>0.05) differences in initial body weight, final body weight and total body weight gain among the birds fed the three dietary treatments but the mortality differed significantly (p<0.05). The digestibility of the crude fibre content of the diets, ether extract and nitrogen free extract as well as the total digestible nutrient differed significantly (p<0.05) across the treatments. It can be concluded that the inclusion of decorticated Baobab seed meal at 9 % and 18 % in broiler starter diets as a protein source is detrimental to the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of the birds. Better processing methods should be employed to reduce the anti-nutritional factors present in the seed meal.