JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY (Volume 12)

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the dietary influence of graded levels of roasted lebbeck (Albizia lebbeck) seed meal on the growth performance and sensory evaluation of broiler chickens. One hundred and sixty Ross 308 birds were used for the experiment. The birds were randomly allotted to four treatments having forty birds per treatment with four replicates in a completely randomized design. Roasted lebbeck seed meal (RLS) was included in diets of broilers at 0, 1.5, 3.0, and 4.5 % levels for Treatments 1 (control), 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The diets formulated were isocaloric and isonitrogenous. The results showed that the dry matter and ash contents of the raw and RLS were similar. While the crude protein and nitrogen-free extract contents of the seed were increased upon roasting. The crude protein content increased from 28.03 in the raw to 31.93 (12.35 % change). However, crude fibre dropped from 18.50 in the raw seed to 7.50 % in the RLS, producing a drastic change of 59.9 %. There was a decrease in ether extract content from 11.06 in raw to 10.04 % in RLS, which is a 9.22 % decrease. Results revealed that as the inclusion levels of RLS increased in the diets, the daily feed intake, daily weight gain, and final live weight decreased significantly (p<0.05). This result may be because the growth-retarding factors in the RLS were partly eliminated during the processing of the seeds. However, the feed efficiency for all 2 treatments was similar (p>0.05), which may imply that the amount of feed required to produce a unit of weight gain was not significantly different for broilers fed different levels of Albizia lebbeck. The sensory attributes like; colour, juiciness, appearance, aroma, and overall acceptability were not significantly (p>0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments. However, flavour and tenderness were significantly (p<0.05) affected. It is, therefore, recommended that RLS be included up to 1.5 % in the diet of broilers for optimum growth performance.