ABSTRACT

A comparative evaluation of the effect of four unconventional plant protein with and without Bio-growth promoter" was earned out on Anak broilers using 160 two weeks old broiler chick in a completely randomised design experiment. The trial lasted five weeks. The 160-unsexed broilers of Anak strain were randomly allocated to 8 dietary treatments each having 2 replicates of IO birds. The diets were designated as diets 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8. Diets 1, 3, 5 and 7 had unsupplemented plant protein sources such as Soyabean meal, cashew nut meal, oraludi and Akidi (cowpea species) while Diet 2,4,6 and 8 had the same protein- based diet with bio-growth" supplementation in the same order. Each diet was offered ad-libium to the birds. The mean daily body weight gain (g), mean daily feed intake (g) and feed-to-grain ratio were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the treatment diets. Birds fed diets I and 2 gave the highest mean daily body weight gain (22.43 and 23.1 lg). This is closely followed by birds fed diets 3 and 4 (17.78 and 21.27g) while those fed diet 5, 6, 7 and 8 exhibited poorer performance. It was also observed that birds whose dicts (2, 4 and 8) were supplemented with cnzyme gave better performance when compared with the unsupplemented diets only with the exception of diet 6. The values obtained on the feed -to-grain ratio showed significant (P<0.05) difference among the treatment diets with diet 2 being the best (2.89) while diet 7 gave the poorest value (4.14). It was also observed that with an increasing body weight, there was also an increase in protein requirements for maintenance, feather, tissue and energy requirement for tissue growth in all diets except for bird fed diets 5 and 6. The cost analysis indices showed significant (P<0.05) differences, Diet l and 2 had the highest revenue accrued and gross margin. T)he cowpea variety based diets (5, 6 7 and 8) with or without enzyme supplementation exhibited good results, especially for diet 8 which had a revenue accrued to be N 552.00 as compared to diet 7 of N 481.00 making a difference of N 7 l.00 for the " ornludi'' (Cowpea) variety. Based on the foregoing, Soyabean meal and Cashew nut meal, growth enzyme supplemented diets are recommended. Finally, cowpea should be better processed and then used with Bio- growth in order to give better result.