Performance, Amino Acid Profile, Carcass Characteristics, Haematological Indices and Feed-cost Benefits of Broiler Chickens to Dietary Melon Seed (Citrullus lanatus)
A 49 day experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance, amino acid profile, carcass characteristics, haematological characteristics and feed cost benefits of broiler birds fed Melon Seed (Citrullus lanatus) 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% Melon Seed (Citrullus lanatus) 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 1969.95g, 1940.27g, 1899.79g, 1840.28g, and 1809.22g (P>0.05), but birds fed Melon Seed (Citrullus lanatus) seed meal diet at 10% showed a better FCR 2.37 among the treatment groups. All Carcass characteristics parameters were significantly different (P<0.05) among the treatment groups with drumstick at 5% having the highest value of 18.95%, thigh having the highest value of 20.84% at 5% melon seed meal diet fed to broilers. Haematological parameters differed significantly (P<0.05) except MCV, MCH and MCHC, but RBC values were highest in T3 (10%) 2.98µl, WBC highest at T3 (10%) 3.00µl respectively, and Hb values highest at T3 (10%) 11.10g/dl and PCV values were highest at the same T3 34.60% at 10% of broilers fed melon seed meal diets. Feed-cost benefits of broiler chickens fed Melon Seed (Citrullus lanatus) seed meal differed (P>0.05) among treatment groups with T5 at 20% melon seed meal having the least feed cost/kg of #765 and T3 at 10% melon seed meal having the highest cost-benefit ratio of 2.51. It was concluded that Melon Seed (Citrullus lanatus) seed meal can partially substitute maize in broiler chicken diets at 15% inclusion level without adverse effects on growth performance, carcass characteristics, haematological and feed-cost benefit parameters.
Key words: Broilers, Melon (Citrullus lanatus), Seed meal, Carcass Characteristics, Haematology, Feed-cost Benefits.
Target Audience: Poultry Farmers, Animal Nutritionists
