EFFECTS OF FEEDING COOKED TALLOW (Detarium microcarpum) SEED MEAL SUPPLEMENTED WITH ENZYME TO BROILER CHICKENS

Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding cooked tallow (Detarium microcarpum) seed meal supplemented with enzyme on growth performance, serum biochemistry and carcass parameters of broiler chickens. During the feeding trial, three hundred (300) day-old Cob-500 broiler chicks were randomly allotted to five different experimental diets with three replicates each containing twenty birds in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The inclusion levels were 0% for the control diet and 10% CDMSM each for diet 2, 3, 4 and 5 cooked for 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes respectively and the enzyme (maxigrain^®) was added at 10g/100kg feed. The result revealed a significant (P<0.05) difference across dietary treatments for final weight gain, daily weight gain, daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio and this indicated that supplementation of enzyme to broiler finisher diets had effect on the performance parameters. The result of serum biochemical parameters indicated a significant (P<0.05) difference among the treatment in AST, ALT and creatinine but no significant (P>0.05) differences across the treatment means for total protein, albumin, cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose levels of the broiler chickens. The result of live and organ weights obtained in the second experiment showed that, there were significant (P<0.05) differences across the treatment means for live weight, dressed weight and dressing percentage of the birds but gizzard, abdominal fat and spleen were not significantly (P>0.05) influenced. The result of live and organ weights obtained in the second experiment showed that there were significant (P<0.05) differences across the treatment means for live weight, dressed weight and dressing percentage of the birds but gizzard, abdominal fat and spleen were not significantly (P>0.05) influenced by the treatment. In conclusion, addition of enzyme (maxigrain^®) on cooked Tallow (Detarium microcarpum) seed reduced the anti-nutritional factors but did not improve the performance of birds when compared to the control diet and futher research needs to be carried out to explore the best cooking durations of Detarium microcarpum seeds and determine the appropriate enzyme to be used.