EFFECTS OF SUPPLEMENTATION OF COMMERCIAL FEED WITH SAND PAPER LEAF MEAL ON GROWTH PARAMETERS OF FINISHER BROILER CHICKEN

Résumé

Due to antibiotic resistance, the use of antibiotics is being discouraged and alternatives to antibiotics collectively called phytogens are being explored which include sand paper leaves. Sand paper leaf meal was supplemented to the basal diet at 0, 10, 15 and 20g/kg, constituting the four experimental diets in this study. Diet supplemented with 0g/kg served as the control diet. Each of the treatments had three replicates of ten birds. Growth parameters assessed were initial weight, final weight, weight gain, average feed intake, feed conversion ratio and mortality. Results revealed that up to 20g/kg
supplementation of sand paper meal in the diets of broiler finishers did not significantly affect (p>0.05) all the parameters considered. No mortality was recorded for all the treatments. Final weight range of 2.00 - 2.25kg/bird; weight gain of 0.78 – 1.02kg/bird and feed conversion ratio of 2.77 – 3.12 were obtained In CONCLUSION,, supplementation of finisher diets with sand paper leaves stabilized the growth performance of the fed broiler finishers as none of the birds died in the
course of this trial.