Growth Performance of Ross Broilers fed Dietary inclusion of Hydrolyzed Chicken Feather Meal

Abstract

This research was designed to evaluate the growth performance of Ross broilers given diet that included hydrolyzed feather meal. Two hundred and twenty-five day-old Ross 308 broiler strains of chicken was used for the study period of eight weeks, the chicks were randomly distributed to five experimental diets namely D1 (control), D2 (Inclusion of HCL precipitated hydrolysed feather meal), D3 (Inclusion of HNO₃ precipitated hydrolysed feather meal), D4 (Inclusion of H₂SO₄ precipitated hydrolysed feather meal) and D5 (Inclusion of H₃PO₄ precipitated hydrolysed feather meal). Each experimental diet consisted of 45 broilers replicated thrice with 15 birds per replicate in a complete randomized design. The data obtained was caused to undergo statistical analysis. The result of proximate composition of the test ingredients of different acid-treated feather meal showed that hydrolysed feathers precipitated with HNO₃ had highest level of protein content (83.63%) compared with other acid-treated feather meal, followed by feather meal treated with HCL (82.40%), while hydrolysed feathers precipitated with H₂SO₄ and HNO₃ had similar level of protein content. Notable differences (P<0.05) were observed across the diets for feed intake, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio and final weight. Conclusively, the HCL hydrolysed feather meal diet performed similar to the control diet.