CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKENS FED RAW AND TREATED MORINGA OLEIFERA SEED MEALS

Abstract

PURPOSE: Effects of raw and treated Moringa oleifera seed meals (MOSM) on performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens was investigated using 180 day-old sexed male Arbor acre chickens. METHODS: Broilers were subjected to five dietary treatments as follows; Diet 1 served as the control and contained no Moringa oleifera seed meal (MOSM), diet 2 is raw MOSM, diets 3, 4, and 5 are ammonium hydroxide Moringa oleifera seed meals (AHMOSM) included at the same 5% level respectively in a Completely Randomized Design. Each treatment was replicated thrice with 12 birds per replicate in the experiment which lasted 35 days. RESULTS: Data analysis indicated that daily weight gain and daily feed intake were not significantly (p>0.05) affected by the inclusion of treated MOSM group and the control while daily weight gain, daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio were significantly (p<0.05) affected by the inclusion of raw MOSM. Birds fed a diet containing 30% AHMOSM showed the highest values for the daily weight gain (61.993 g), and daily feed intake (104.737 g), while feed conversion ratio favoured birds on 20% AHMOSM (1.677) among the treatment group. AHMOSM also showed a significant (p<0.05) effect on all the prime cut and organs of broilers. Birds fed control diet had significant (p<0.05) highest live weight, dressed weight and dressing percentage values followed by those fed 20% dietary doses of AHMOSM. CONCLUSIONS: MOSM can replace soya bean meal in broiler chick diets up to 5% without deleterious effect on the growth performance and carcass characteristics.