Effects of two herbal feed additives with or without grits on carcass evaluation of broiler chickens

Abstract

An eight-week study was conducted to investigate effects of two herbal feed additives with or without grits on carcass evaluation of broiler chickens. One hundred and forty-four day-old unsexed Cobb broiler chicks were randomly assigned to six treatments of twenty four birds per treatment with three replicates of eight birds each. Six dietary treatments were formulated with the inclusion of Moringaoleifera leaf meal (MOLM), Garcinia kola seed meal (GKSM) and grits. The experimental rations contained diet without MOLM, GKSM and grits which served as treatment 1 (control), with MOLM at 1000ppm (treatment 2), with GKSM at 1000ppm (treatment 3), with grits at 1000ppm (treatment 4), with MOLM at 1000ppm + grits at 1000ppm (treatment 5) and with GKSM at 1000ppm + grits at 1000ppm (treatment 6). Data were collected on carcass evaluation and subjected to analysis of variance in a completely randomised design. The proximate composition revealed that MOLM had higher crude protein (21.96%), crude fat (4.87%), crude fibre (15.61%) and ash (9.32%) than those found in GKSM.back was significantly (p 0.05) by the dietary treatments.From the results of this study, it can be concluded that the bird fed control diet had highest value for back%, those fed GSKM + grit had highest value for kidney% and those fed grit had highest value for caeca%.