Performance and Economics of Production of Broiler Chicks Fed Varying Levels of Dried Sorrel (Hibiscus subdariffa) Leaves as Source of Fibre

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to assess the performance and economics of production of broiler chicks fed Dried Sorrel Leaves (DSL) as a source of fibre. 120day old chicks were randomly allotted to six treatments in which DSL was used to replace wheat offal at 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% in the broiler starter diet.The chicks were reared on six isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets. Each treatment was replicated twice in a completely randomized design. Results showed that daily feed intake, daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio were not affected by the different levels of DSL (P>0.05) at the starter phase. It was concluded that DSL can be included at higher levels to reduce the cost of production.