Performance of growing japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) fed different levels of peeled cooked sun-dried sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) meal diets

A six –week feeding trial was set up to investigate the effect of feeding peeled, cooked, sundried sweet potato tuber meal on growth parameters and digestibility of nutrients by Japanese quail chicks. Five isonitrogenous (25%CP) diets were compounded. The control diet (A) had zero sweet potato tuber meal. In the other four diets (B, C, D, and E), 25, 50, 75 and 100% of maize (respectively) was replaced by peeled, cooked, sundried sweet potato tuber meal. Sixty birds were randomly assigned to each diet in a completely randomized design. The diets were replicated three times with twenty birds per replicate. Feed and water were given ad libitum. Parameters measured were feed intake, water intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, and feed cost/gain. Others were protein intake and energy intake in the course of the study. Feed intake was significantly (p˂0.05) lower on diet C (14.05g/bird/day) than on diets D (14.87 g/bird/day) and E (14.79g/bird/day). Other differences were not significant. Water intake was significantly (p˂0.05) higher on diet D (27.40ml/bird/day) than on diets A (23.77 ml/bird/day), B (24.01 ml/bird/day) and C (24.66ml/b/d). Other differences were not significant. Protein intake was significantly (p˂0.05) higher on diet D (3.72g) than on diets A (3.55g), B (3.54g) and C (3.51g). Differences between diets D and E were not significant. None of the other parameters (weight gain, feed conversion ratio, feed cost/gain, energy intake) measured in the course of the study differed significantly (p˃0.05) from the control. Apparent digestibility of dry matter was significantly better (p˂0.05) by birds on diet A (control) than by birds on the sweet potato meal diets. Digestibility of crude protein was significantly better (p˂0.05) by birds on diet C than by those on diets A, B and E. Ether extract digestibility was significantly better by birds on diet E than by those on the control and other sweet potato diets. There was one hundred percent survivability as none of the birds died in the course of the study. Results of this study show that peeled cooked sundried sweet potato can completely replace maize in the diet of quail chicks without adverse effects on performance or on digestibility of nutrients.Key words: Japanese quail, sweet potato, feed intake, energy intake, digestibilit

Growth and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens fed water soaked and cooked velvet bean (Mucuna utilis) meal

A 56-day feeding trial was conducted to determine the effects of dietary raw and soaked and cooked velvet beans, Mucuna utilis on the performance of broiler chickens. Two batches of raw Mucuna seedswere used. The first batch of seeds was used raw. The second batch was soaked for 24 h, subdivided into four parts and cooked for 0, 20, 40 and 60 min before sun-drying and milling. All the meals were analyzed for their proximate composition and included in the test diets at 20% dietary levels. The control diet contained no Mucuna meal. One hundred and eighty, 7 –day old Anak(R) broiler chicks were randomly assigned to six dietary treatments in a completely randomized design and replicated three times. At 20% dietary level, raw M. utilis seed meal significantly (

Effect of supplemental Ascorbic acid and disturbance stress on the performance of broiler chickens

The study was conducted with four hundred day-old Anak broilers to determine the effects of dietary Ascorbic acid (AA) and disturbance (D) dress on the performance of broiler chickens in a tropical environment. There were four treatments consisting of two levels of disturbance (ID) and (4D) and two levels of dietary AA (0 and 250mgAA/kg feed). Each treatment was replicated four times with 25 chicks per replicate. The starter and finisher diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous and isocaloric.Results showed that there were no significant interactions between dietary ascorbic acid supplementation and disturbance stress levels on any of the performance data considered. The disturbance stress had no significant effects on most of the measured parameters. However, there was a 35% increase in mortality rate as disturbance stress level increased from ID to 4D.The dietary ascorbic acid supplementation level had no significant effect on feed intake and weight gain. Feed conversion ratios were significantly improved with AA supplementation during the starter phase only. Dietary AA supplementation also had a 90% reduction in mortality of chicks compared with the unsupplemented group. Likewise AA inclusion in diets had a feed cost advantage.It may be concluded that disturbance induced stress increased mortality and lowered performance. However these effects were relieved by dietary AA supplementation.Keywords: Disturbance, Ascorbic Acid, Broiler Performance

Performance and carcass values of Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) fed processed sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) meal diets

A six–week feeding trial was carried out to investigate the effect of processing of sweet potato tuber on growth parameters and carcass values of Japanese quails. Five isonitrogenous (25%CP) diets were compounded. The control diet (A) had zero sweet potato tuber meal. The other four diets (B, C, D and E) contained sweet potato tuber meal processed in different ways (unpeeled, peeled, unpeeled and cooked and peeled and cooked) replacing maize at 15.60% of the diet. 300 day-old Japanese quail birds (of mixed sexes) were randomly assigned the diets in a completely randomized design. Feed and water were provided ad libitum. Each diet was allocated to 60 quail chicks which were further divided into three replicates of 20 birds each. None of the indices measured (feed intake, water intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, feed cost/gain, protein intake, energy efficiency ratio and protein efficiency ratio) differed significantly (p>0.05) from the control. Energy intake was, however, higher (p < 0.05) on the control than on the sweet potato diets. Carcass values measured showed that bled weight and plucked weight were significantly (p < 0.05) heavier on the peeled and cooked sweet potato than on the unpeeled. Dressed weight and dressing % were better (p < 0.05) on the peeled and cooked than on the rest of the diets. Wing % was worse (p < 0.05) on the peeled and cooked sweet potato than on the rest of the diets while drumstick % was worse (p < 0.05) on peeled and cooked than on the control only. Results show that processed sweet potato can replace maize at 15.60% of the diet of quail chicks without adverse effect on performance or on carcass values and has a cost saving of 1.5% over the control diet.Keywords: Feed intake, water intake, dry matter digestibilit