Asian Journal of Poultry Science
Year: 2008 | Volume: 2 | Issue: 1 | Page No.: 10 - 16
Response of Shika Brown Cockerels to Graded Dietary Levels of Lablab purpureus Beans
F.O. Abeke, S.O. Ogundipe, A.A. Sekoni, I.I. Dafwang, I.A. Adeyinka, O.O. Oni, B.I. Nwagu and A. Abeke
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the response of Shika Brown cockerels
to graded levels of Lablab purpureus beans, processed by boiling
in water for 30 min at 100°C. Six isonitrogenous diets with similar
caloric levels were formulated to contain lablab seed meal at 0.0, 7.5,
15.0, 22.5, 30.0 and 37.5%, respectively. Diet 1, which had no lablab
seeds and served, as the control, was a groundnut cake-maize based chick
diet. Each diet served as a treatment and each treatment was replicated
three times in a completely randomized design. There were 30 birds per
replicate making a total of 540 birds for the study. Feed and water were
provided ad libitum. The experiment lasted 8 weeks. The results
obtained showed significant (p<0.05) negative responses of the cockerels
to dietary levels of lablab. It was observed that there was a significant
(p<0.05) decrease in final weight and weight gain as the level of lablab
in the diet increased. Feed efficiency was observed to decrease significantly
(p>0.05) as the level of lablab in the diet increased. Mortality was
not however significantly (p>0.05) affected by feeding lablab in the
diet of the cockerels. Feed cost (
/bird)
and total cost (/bird) were
significantly reduced (p<0.05) as the dietary levels of lablab seed
increased. Also organ weights and haematological parameters were not significantly
(p>0.05) affected by feeding graded dietary levels of cooked Lablab
purpureus beans in the diets of Shika brown cockerels.