PERFORMANCE OF FINISHER BROILER CHICKENS FED VARYING LEVELS OF CASHEW (Anacardium occidentale) LEAF MEAL

Abstract

The low nutrient utilization which is combatant to soaring cost of raising poultry has made the animal nutritionist to explore avenues to use natural feed additives to maximize the utilization of nutrients in the available feed ingredients for cost reduction. A study was therefore undertaken to evaluate the proximate composition of cashew Anarcadium occidentale leaf meal (CLM) and the effect of it’s dietary inclusion on performance of finisher broiler chickens. One hundred and twenty Anak-2000 breed of finisher broilers were distributed randomly in a completely randomized design (CRD) of four treatments replicated three times. The experimental diets consist of CLM added at levels of 0%, 1.5%, 2.5% and 3.5% in treatment 1 (control), 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The diets were fed for 28 days, during which feed intake and weight gain were monitored. The result of the proximate composition showed that CLM contained 14.53% crude protein among other nutrients while the result of performance showed that treatment 4 had significant (P<0.05) highest weight gain and feed intake while treatments 2 and 3 were similar (P>0.05) with the control. It was concluded that inclusion of CLM at 3.5% had the potential to impact positively on performance of finisher broiler chickens and therefore could be included in the formulation of finisher broilers diets at up to 3.5%