Performance of Broiler Chickens Fed Diets Containing Canarium schweinfurthii Seed Meal
A 49 day experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance, anti-nutritional factors, amino acid profile, carcass characteristics, haematological and serum biochemical indices of broiler birds fed Canarium schweinfurthii seed meal as partial substitution for maize. A total of 150 day old broiler chickens of Abor Acre Strain were randomly assigned to five (5) treatment diets having three replicates consisting of 10 birds each in a Completely Randomized Design. The dietary treatments were formulated such that Diet 1(Control),2, 3, 4, and 5 contained 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% Canarium schweinfurthii seed meal as a partial substitution for dietary maize respectively. They were fed and watered ad-libitum on a wood-shaving litter. Growth parameters such as feed intake, weight changes, feed-to-gain ratio were obtained while other parameters such as blood were determined in the laboratory according to the procedure. Body weight results differed (P>0.05) among treatment groups respectively. The results obtained were 1620.21g, 1630.18g, 1590.03g, 1530.38g, and 1510.80g (P>0.05), but birds fed Canarium schweinfurthii seed meal diet at 5% showed a better FCR 2.71 among the treatment groups. All Carcass characteristics parameters were significantly different (P<0.05) among the treatment groups except back cut and wings with dressed weight,, dressing percent, thight, drumstick, wings and breast cut at 5% having the highest values respectively for broiler chickens fed Canarium schweinfurthii seed meal. Haematological parameters differed significantly (P<0.05) except WBC, MCV, MCH and MCHC, but RBC values were highest in T2 (5%) 3.01µl, WBC highest at T5 (20%) 3.02µl respectively, and Hb values highest at T2 (5%) 11.78g/dl and PCV values were highest at the same T2 35.16% at 10% of broilers fed Canarium schweinfurthii seed meal diets. Some Serum biochemistry parameters differed (P>0.05) among treatment groups except glucose, globulin, creatinine, urea and bilirubin. Therefore, the findings demonstrate that 5–10% dietary inclusion of processed Canarium schweinfurthii seed meal is the optimum level for maintaining normal metabolic status while sustaining good growth performance and carcass quality in broiler chickens without deleterious effe
Keywords: Broilers, Canarium schweinfurthii, Seed meal, Carcass Characteristics, Haematology, Serum biochemistry.
Target Audience: Poultry Farmers, Animal Nutritionists
