Performance of broiler chickens administered graded levels of bitter kola (Garcinia kola, Heckel) as feed additive

Résumé

A study of 28 days (4 weeks) was carried out at the Poultry Section of Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port-Harcourt Rivers State-Nigeria, to determine the effect of bitter kola (Garcinia kola, Heckel) powder as a growth promoter in broiler chicken diets. One hundred and forty-four (144) unsexed one day-old Anak strain broiler chicks were subjected to various concentrated levels of bitter kola at T1 (control), T2 (5g/kg feed), T3 (10g/kg feed), T4 (15g/kg feed), respectively using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD), with 36 birds/treatment and 12 birds/replicate. The parameters evaluated were weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and cost production. Data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results obtained indicated significant effect (P<0.05) in all the growth parameters evaluated. The mean total feed intake was 12.00kg, 11.85kg, 12.50kg and 11.55kg respectively for T1 , T2 , T3 and T4 . Mean total weight gain was highest in T4 (2.91kg) and least in T1 (2.57kg). On feed conversion ratio, T4 recorded the best with 3.97. It was 1 4 therefore advocated that bitter kola should be included in broiler diets as a feed additive to improve broiler chicken performance.