APPARENT NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY OF BROILER CHICKENS FED ON VARYING LEVELS OF WATER LEAF (Talinum triangulare) AQUEOUS EXTRACT.

Abstract

In order to reduce the high cost of feeding the birds and at the same time maintain the quality of the feeds, there is need to feed the broiler chicken with leaves, herbs or spices which could enhance their growth rate, reduce their susceptibility to pathogenic attack thereby improving the quality of the meat. To assess this. A total of one hundred and fifty (150) day old Anak 2000 broiler chicks were used to evaluate the apparent nutrient digestibility of broiler chickens varying levels of water leaf (Talinum triangulare) aqueous extract (WLAE). Thirty chicks were randomly selected based on their average initial weights and placed on five oral treatment diets (T1 to T5). T1 was ordinary water serving as the control, T2 was with the inclusion of 0.5mls per liter of multivitamin while T3 to T5 had an inclusion level of the aqueous extract of Waterleaf at 50, 75, 100mls-L respectively in a complete randomized design (CRD). Each treatment group contained three replicate with ten birds per replicates. Results revealed a significant (p<0.05) variation in the digestible crude protein, crude fibre, ash, ether extract and Nitrogen free extract (NFE) while dry matter content were similar (p>0.05) across the treatment groups. Digestible crude protein (25.53%), crude fibre (12.46%) and ash (7.60%) were significantly (P<0.05) highest in broiler chickens placed on 50mLs of WLAE, Apparent digestible ether extract was significantly (P<0.05) highest in birds on 100mLs of WLAE comparable to those on 50% WLAE. Least nitrogen free extract values was recorded in birds on 50% WLAE and highest significantly (P<0.05) in birds placed on (0.5mLs) of multivitamin (T2). It is therefore concluded that Waterleaf aqueous extract (WLAE) can successfully be included orally in broiler chickens diet up to 50mls without any deleterious effect on the nutrient digestibility