| Popis: |
The effects of replacing fish meal (FM) with graded levels of poultry visceral offal meal (PVOM) in five grower pullets diets were investigated in a 4 week study using 200 Isa Brown pullets from 14 to 18 weeks of age. There were four replicates per test diet, with 10 birds per replicate. Diets A (control) contained 4% FM as the sole source of dietary animal protein. PVOM was included in diets B,C,D and E at the levels of 1.18, 2:37, 3.55 and 4.73% of the diets to supply 25,50,75 and 100% of animal protein supplied by 4% FM in the control diet A respectively. All the test diets were isocaloric (11.8MJ ME/kg) and isonitrogenous (16% CP). There was no significant effect ( P > 0.05) of replacing dietary FM with PVOM (on an equal protein basis) on the performance parameters measured. Birds fed on diets A,B,C,D and E had similar (P > 0.05) mean daily weight gains of 14.16, 13.66, 14.65, 13.15 and 13.84g/bird respectively. The mean daily feed consumption values were 73.61, 73.27, 73.88, 72.10 and 71.76g/bird for the birds on diets A,B,C,D and E respectively while similar mean feed conversion ratios of 5.21, 5.45, 5.04, 5.42 and 5.21 were also recorded for the birds on diets A,B,C,D and E respectively. It is concluded that PVOM could replace FM completely on an equal protein basis in grower pullets' diets. Cost of feed per unit of weight gain was lower on the PVOM-based diet than on the FM-based diet. Keywords : Poultry visceral offal meal, fish meal, protein, grower pullet, performance. |
