Nutritional evaluation of differently processed plant protein sources on the performance of broiler chickens

An eight-week feeding trial was conducted to assess four differently protein sources on performance of broiler chickens. Two hundred and fifty (250) day old unsex Anak 2000 broiler chicks were randomly allotted to four differently processed plant protein sources i.e. cooked soybean, salt treated African locust bean and sprouted Bambara nut with groundnut cake (GNC) based diet as control, the treatments were replicated five times (12 birds per replicate) in a Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD). Results showed that daily feed intake, daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio were affected by different protein sources (p<0.05) at starter, finisher and overall phase. The carcass characteristics showed that live weight (1988-2160 g), slaughter weight (1610-1965 g) and plucked weight (1600-1814 g) were affected by different protein sources(p<0.05). The dressing percentage (83.31-86.25%) are not affected by different protein sources (p>0.05). The abdominal fat (0.61-0.64%), gizzard (1.61-1.77%), small intestine (40.80-43.20 cm) and large intestine (141.80-201.60 cm) were affected by the different protein sources (p<0.05). All the prime cuts were significantly (p<0.05) affected by the dietary protein sources. Total feed cost is highest in soya-bean based diet (N 379.30). The highest body weight (4.53 kg) is in soya bean-based diet. The feed cost per kg gain is highest in GNC based diet (N 158.34) and lowest in soya bean based diet (N 126.43). All the protein sources enhanced the growth performance of broiler chickens; however, soybean was more effective in enhancing the performance of broiler chickens.