ABSTRACT

A 56 day feeding trial involving forty eight (48) day old broiler chicks using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was conducted on the deep litter in the poultry house of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) to evaluate the effect of partial replacement of maize with plantain peel meals in the diet of broilers at 0, 5, 10 and 15% graded levels on the performance of broilers. 0% treatment diet had no plantain peel meal and served as the control diet. All the prophylactic and standards management methods were strictly observed as and when due and clean water provided ad-fib/turn. Data were collected on feed intake, feed conversion ratio and daily weight gain. The feed intake differed (p<0.05) significantly among the treatment groups. The control treatment group (0% inclusion of plantain peel meal) had the lowest feed intake (55.15) while 10% had the highest (65.05). The control treatment group had the best daily weight gain (30.44) and feed conversion ratio (1.81) and differed (p<0.05) significantly from other treatment groups. However the various treatment diets did not produce deleterious effect on the birds.