Abstract:
There has been conflicting reports by so many researchers on the replaceable level of citrus peel meal (CPM) However, it appears that conflicting reports on the optimum level of citrus peel utilization of the citrus peel in livestock exist and the purpose of this study is to fill the gap. An experiment was therefore conducted to establish the replaceable value of citrus peel meal for maize in broiler chicken diet. 300 day-old Arbor Acre chicken were used for the experiment that lasted for eight weeks. Birds were randomly selected and allotted to six treatment group with three replicate per treatment of ten birds per replicate. A basal diet was formulated, the maize component of the basal diet was replaced with Citrus peel meal (CPM) at 0%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%, 12.5% and 15%. At the end of eight weeks, fifty four birds (9 birds per treatment group) was weighed to know the weight gain and then slaughtered to collect blood samples. About 5ml of blood from each bird was dispensed into the ethylene Diamene Tetra Acetic Acid (EDTA) bottles and sterile tubes concurrently, for haematological and serum analyses. The birds were then eviscerated to collect the organs which were also weighed. The result showed that total weight gain and feed conversion ratio were significant (P < 0.05) influenced, haematological indices were not significantly (P > 0.05) influenced, but for serum biochemistry, creatinine and alanine amino transferase were significant (P < 0.05) influenced. At the end it was observed that the replacing values of citrus peel meal had effect on weight gain, biochemical indices but showed no haematoxic effect in the birds.
