EFFECT OF Sacoglotis gabonensis BARK MEAL ON THE CARCASS AND INTERNAL ORGAN CHARACTERISTIC OF BROILER CHICKENS
The experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of Sacooglotis gabonensis bark meal (SGBM) on the carcass quality and internal organs characteristic of broiler chickens. A total of one hundred and fifty day old cobb 500 chicks were randomly assigned to five dietary treatment containing 30 chicks each. Each treatment was replicated three times with ten birds each. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design(CRD).Five diets were formulated to represent (T1-T5),Treatment 1(T1) served as the control diet containing no SGBM, while T2,T3,T3 and T5 contained 0.5,1.0,1.5 and 2.0 % respectively. The formulated diet were fed to the birds from the pre starter phase(week1-3) through the starter phase(week 4-5) and the finisher phase(week 6-8).Bird were allowed access to water and feed ad libitum. Parameters measured for the carcass were live weight, stunned weight, dressed weight, dressing %,drum stick %,thigh %,back %, breast %, wing % and head % while the internal organs parameters measured were crop, proventiculus, empty gizzard, small intestine weight, spleen , pancreas ,large intestine weight, liver, bile volume, abdominal fat, lungs ,heart, kidney and caecum. At the end of the feeding trial, result showed that on the carcass, there was no significant differences (p>0.05) in all the carcass parameters measured across the various treatment and except for the abdominal fat there were equally no significant differences in the internal organs indicating that SGBM did not exert any negative effect on the birds.
Keywords: Broiler chickens, Pre starter to finisher phases, Sacooglotis gabonensis bark meal (SGBM) , Carcass quality and Internal organs.
