Nutritional Evaluation of GroundnutPod Waste in Growing Broiler Diet

Abstract

A 35-day trial using 108 day broiler birds was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary inclusion of Groundnut pods into the diet of broiler birds on their performance characteristics . The birds were separated into 4 groups and further replicated 3 times in a completely randomized design and fed diets containing 0,5,10 and 15% levels of Groundnut pods as a replacement for maize in the control diet. The birds were adequately housed, while feed and water were supplied ad-libitum. Other standard management practices were adequately put in place. At the end of the trial, 4 bird were randomly sampled from each treatment and slaughtered to access carcass characteristics.  The results showed that there was no significant differences (P>0.05) in fed consumption and average weight gain between the different dietary treatments. Except for the relative weight of thigh and back which showed significant (P<0.05) differences between treatments other carcass characteristics were not significantly (P>0.05) affected. The relative organ weight showed no significant (P>0.05) difference based on the different dietary treatment except for the weight of the heart and lungs which showed significant (P<0.05) differences.

Keywords; Nutritional, Evaluation, Groundnut Pods , Growing Broiler