ABSTRACT

The performance and carcass characteristics of broiler birds fed Digitaria exilis (Acha) were determined with 300 birds of Abro acre breed. The experiment which lasted for 42 days had ten dietary treatments (DI to D10). The experimental diets were formulated to replace maize at 33.33%, 66.66% and 99.99% respectively. Diet 1(control diet), diet 2(33.33% acha), diet 3(66.66% acha) and diet 4(99.99% acha) had no oil supplement, diet 5(33.33% acha), diet 6(66.66% acha) and diet 7(99.99% acha) had palm oil supplement, while diet 8(33.33% acha), diet 9(66.66% acha) and diet 10(99.99% acha) were supplemented with groundnut oil. The birds were allotted to IO treatment groups in a completely randomised design, each treatment had thirty birds and the treatments were replicated three times with IO birds per replicate. Feed and water were given ad-libitum. Parameters considered was feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, protein efficiency ratio and carcass characteristics. There were significant differences in the protein efficiency ratio of the broilers in the starter and finisher stage. Birds in D6 (66.66% acha and palm oil) performed better in the starter phase by obtaining highest final weight gain of 1140.57g, best feed to gain ratio of 1.60 and best protein efficiency ratio of 2.87, while birds in D7 (99.99% acha and palm oil) performed better in the finisher phase by obtaining highest weight of 2120.00g, and best protein efficiency ratio of 1.44. The birds had better value for live weight at 66.66% levels of acha in the broiler diet when compared with 33.33% and 99.99% replacement levels respectively. However, D6, D7 and D9 had similar values of live weights but were significantly different (p<0.05) than control treatment (DI) that was significantly lower than (p>0.05) other treatments. There was no significant difference in the carcass quality of broilers fed acha except in the breastplate%, back%, shank and abdominal fat% meaning that the use of acha does improves the carcass quality of broilers. This experiment showed that an increment in replacement level of maize up to 66.66% with acha is good for better live weights of broilers.