REPLACEMENT VALUE OF ACHA OFFAL (Digitaria exilis) FOR MAIZE IN BROILER CHICKEN DIETS

Abstract

The need for alternative feed ingredient that will lead to a reduction in the cost of feed for broiler chickens with little or no competition with human or for industrial purposes has led to investigating the nutritive value of acha offal in broiler chicken diet. The proximate composition, mineral, amino acid, energy, and, anti-nutritional constituents of the acha offal were determined. Two control basal diets were formulated, each for starter and finisher phases and designated T1. The basal had its maize replaced with acha offal at 5, 7.5,10,12.5, and 15%level and were designated diets T2–T6. Three hundred and sixty days old chicks were allotted to the six dietary treatments of sixty birds per treatment. Each treatment was replicated 6 times with 10 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. The feeding trial spanned 42 days; towards the end of the trial Titanium Oxide (TiO2) at 0.5% was added to the diets to determine the digestibility coefficient. The response criteria include growth, haematology, serum, and cost benefit ratio. The offal contain:11% crude protein, 5.92% crude fibre, 14.7MJ/100g, Some minerals and amino acids. Acha offal can replace maize up to 15% level with a value of 733.00g in controlvs955.25g/bird in 15% for the final body weight in the starter phase and 1936.67g vs 2172.50g/ bird in the finisher phase withbetter feed conversion ratio of 2.15 vs 1.75 and 2.46 vs 2.26 respectively. The cost reduction varied 1.63-4.83% and 1.88-5.66% for starter and finisher phases respectively. The digestibility co-efficient, amino and nutrients utilization of birds fed the control diet were in most cases lower than those fed the acha offal based diets. Only the Packedcell volume, red blood cell and cholesterol were significantly(P<0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments. It can be concluded that since 15% replacement value of acha offal was found to be of tremendous economic value to broiler farmers, increasing the quantity of acha offal may also be considered for further research so as to determine the threshold level.