Growth performance of Ross 308 broiler chickens fed diets containing varying levels of boiled Albizia lebbeck seed meal

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to investigate the dietary effect of graded levels of boiled Albizia lebbeck seed meal (ASM) on the growth performance of broiler chickens. A total of one hundred and sixty (160) day-old unsexed Ross 308 broiler chicks were used in a seven-week feeding trial. A completely randomized design was used for the experiment. Chicks were randomly assigned to one of four treatments each of which was replicated four times. Each replicate consisted of ten birds, making a total of forty birds per treatment. Treatment 1 served as the control (0%) with no boiled ASM, while treatments 2, 3, and 4 were diets with 1.5, 3.0, and 4.5 % inclusion levels of ASM respectively. A single-phase feeding regime was employed and the diets formulated were isocaloric and isonitrogenous. The results obtained showed that dietary treatments significantly affected (p<0.05) the daily feed intake, daily weight gain, final live weight and feed efficiency of birds. However, there was no significant difference in percentage mortality across all the treatment groups. It is noteworthy that as the inclusion levels of boiled Albizia lebbeck increase in the diets, the daily feed intake, daily weight gain as well as final live weight decreases significantly (p<0.05). Nevertheless, the feed efficiency followed a slightly different trend. Treatment 1 (the control with 0% ASM) was similar to treatment 2 (birds fed 1.5% ASM) whereas birds on treatment 3 (3.0% ASM) and treatment 4 (4.5% ASM) had feed efficiency that was statistically the same. The results obtained show that the growth-retarding factors in the seeds were partially eliminated by boiling the seeds for 30 minutes. Probably, extending the boiling time may further reduce the levels of the antinutrients to achieve improved growth performance of birds.