ASSESSMENT OF PERFORMANCE INDICES OF BROILER CHICKENS FED GRADED LEVELS OF TETRAPLEURA TETRAPTERA EXTRACTS

Résumé

The poultry industry constantly seeks alternative and sustainable feed additives to improve broiler chicken growth performance. Tetraptera tetrapleura, a West African plant, possesses bioactive compounds with potential growth promoting properties. The growth response of broiler chickens to diet containing the ethanolic extract of Tetrapleura tetraptera at varying levels of 0%, 0.2% and 0.3% was assessed. Ninety six (96) unsexed Abor Acre broilers were randomly distributed to the three
treatment groups (32 chicks per group) with four replicates in a completely randomized design (CRD). Each treatment group received a control diet with the respective levels of Tetrapleura tetraptera up to six weeks. The results revealed that all parameters showed no significant (p>0.05) differences in the starter phase. However, the results obtained for final weight and weight gain showed significant differences (p<0.05) in the finisher phase. The highest average weight gain value
(1.61kg) was recorded for birds fed the control group diet, this was followed by D2 (1.33kg) and D3 (1.32kg). The broiler chickens fed control diet (D1) performed better in both phases. Hence it could be concluded that Tetrapleura tetraptera extract inclusion did not significantly affect the growth performance of broiler chicken at the tested levels in the current study, this highlights the need for further research with lesser dosage application to fully understand the plants potential.