PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS FED SUPPLEMENTED LEVELS OF DRY GUAVA (Psidium guajava) LEAF MEAL AS A PHYTOGENIC ADDITIVE IN POULTRY PRODUCTION

Abstract

The study was designed to investigate the effects of dietary levels of Dried Guava Leaf Meal (DGLM) on growth production performance indices. 180 unsexed day-old broiler chicks with average weight of 40 g. The birds were divided and randomly allotted to four treatment groups of three replicates with each replicate containing 15 chicks in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The dietary treatment comprised of control (basal diet without guava leaf meal supplementation (0 g/100kg DGLM)) and those with 450g/100kg DGLM, 500 g/100kg DGLM and 550g/100kg DGLM diet. Data were collected on growth performance (body weight, feed intake and feed conversion ratio).  The growth performance data collected were subjected to One-way Analyses of Variance and significant, means were separated using Duncan Multiple Range Test of SPSS version 22 software packages. The results showed that final weight gain was not significantly (p>0.05) different across the treatments. Daily feed intake was not significantly (p>0.05) affected by Dried Guava Leaf Meal. Feed conversion ratio reduced with increase in Dried Guava Leaf Meal supplementation but showed no significant differences (p>0.05). The results revealed that there was no significant (p>0.05) difference among the dietary treatments in all the parameters measured. It can be concluded that dried guava leaf meal does not have detrimental effect on the performance of broiler chicken.