Meat Yield and Meat Composition of Broiler Chickens fed Sodium Chloride Treated Rice Bran as a Replacment for Corn Offal

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Performance of rabbits fed diets containing graded levels of processed tallow (Detarium microcarpum) seed meal

A twelve weeks experiment was conducted using eighty one (81) cross bred (Chinchilla x New Zealand white) weaned rabbits with average initial weights of 540g to evaluate the performance of rabbits fed diets containing graded levels of processed tallow (Detarium microcarpum) seed meal. The design of the experiment was 1 + 2/4 factorial and arranged as a completely randomized design (CRD). The rabbits were randomly allotted to nine treatment groups with nine rabbits per treatment. Each treatment had three replicates with three rabbits per replicate. Two processing methods (Cooking and Fermentation) were used to process tallow seeds. Control diet had 100% palm kernel cake (PKC) meal and 0% tallow seed meal, represented as T0. T15 – T4 contained cooked tallow seed meal (CTSM) and included as T1 (75% PKC : 25% CTSM); T2 (50% PKC : 50% CTSM); T3 (25% PKC : 75% CTSM) and T4 (0% PKC : 100% CTSM), While T5 – T8 had fermented tallow seed meal (FTSM) and included at the same levels as observed in the cooked diets. Data were collected on body weight, feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, protein efficiency ratio and nutrient digestibility were calculated. Only ash content was affected by the processing method in the result of nutrient digestibility. The results revealed that processing improves the nutritional quality of tallow seeds. Rabbits fed cooked tallow seed based diets revealed higher feed intake, final body weight and body weight gain compared to Rabbits fed diets containing fermented tallow seed. It was therefore concluded that cooking and fermentation methods are effective processing method for eliminating the anti-nutritional factors contained in tallow seeds and so can be included in the diets of weaned rabbits at 100 % replacement of PKC without deleterious effect on their growth performance.Keywords: rabbits, tallow seeds, cooking, fermentation, palm kernel cake, performance

Growth performance and carcass characteristics of rabbits (Oryctolagus cunniculus) fed kolanut (Cola acuminata) husk meal

An eight week experiment was conducted using thirty six rabbits (mixed breeds) with the sex ratio of 1:1(male; female) to investigate the growth performance and carcass characteristics of rabbits fed different levels of kolanut husk meal (KHM) .The rabbits were randomly allotted to three dietary treatment groups containing 0., 10 and 20% of KHM. There were three replicates per treatment and four rabbits per replicate in a complete randomized design. Data were collected on body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, nutrient digestibility, and meat quality and carcass characteristics. There were no significant difference (p>0.05) in the body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio. Also there were no significant (P>0.05) differences observed in the values of crude protein, dry matter and crude fibre digestibility of the rabbits except for ether extract which showed significant difference (P<0.05). Cooking yield, cooking loss, water holding capacity shoulder and hind limb weight were not significantly (P>0.05) different. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed in dressing weight, loin weight, ribs weight, heart and intestinal weight. It was concluded from the result obtained that KHM can be included in the diets of rabbits up to 20% level without having any deleterious effect on the growth performance. However, inclusion of kolanut husk meal improves the carcass characteristics of rabbits.Keywords: Kolanut husk, Growth performance, Carcass characteristicsNigerian Journal of Technological Research, Vol 7(1) 201

Haematological evaluation of broilers administered probiotics (lactobacillus bulgaricus)

bulgaricus) administered through drinking water on some haematological indices. The birds were divided into three treatment groups each with two replicates. The three treatments were designated as T1, T2 and T3representing no probiotics (control), probiotics administered fortnightly and probiotics given weekly respectively. The experiment lasted for 63 days. The experimental design was completely randomized design.The birds were all given the same starter diet (CP 22%; energy 3000Kcal/Kg) and the same finisher diet (CP 20%; energy 3200Kcal/Kg) respectively. The parameters measured included haemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell count (RBC), white blood cell count (WBC), blood total protein (TP), albumin and blood triglyceride. Results showed that, Hb, PCV, RBC, WBC, lymphocytes, TP and blood triglyceride were significantly affected (p0.05) by the treatment at the starter phase of the experiment. At the finisher phase, TP was not significantly affected (p>0.05) by the treatment while the other parameters evaluated were all affected (