Effect of substituting maize in the grower diet with ground Prosopis juliflora pods on performance of indigenous chicken in Kenya

Abstract

Ninety-six KARLO improved chicken (KIC) aged 8 weeks were used to study the effect of replacing the maize component in commercial grower feed with Prosopis juliflora pods on growth performance. A commercial grower feed, without ground Prosopis juliflora pods GPJP, was used as the control diet. The experimental diets were formulated by replacing maize in the diet with GPJP at 0% (PJP-0), 10% (PJP-10), 20% (PJP-20) and 30 % (PJP-30). A Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was used with the four dietary treatments that were iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric. Feed intake and live weight gains were monitored for eleven weeks and used to calculate feed conversion ratio (FCR). Two birds from each pen were slaughtered to measure different parts carcass weights. Results indicate that PJP-10 and PJP-30 decreased feed intake as compared to PJP-0 in pullets, while in cockerels, PJP-30 decreased feed intake as compared to treatments PJP-0 and PJP-10. All treatments had similar findings on live weight gains in pullets. However,PJP-30 had lower live weight gains than PJP-0 in cockerels. PJP-30 had lower final live weight (FLW) in pullets and cockerels however PJP-20 in cockerels gave similar results as PJP-30. In cockerels, PJP-30 had lower values for live weight change (LWC) as compared to PJP-0 and PJP-10. Cockerels receiving PJP-30 had lowest yields for dressed cold weight (DCW) eviscerated weight (EW) and breast weight (BW) as compared to yields from the other treatments with PJP-0 and PJP-10 having similar weights for DCW and EW while in BW the first three levels of GPJP inclusion had similar weights. In pullets, the first three levels of GPJP had similar BW yield but PJP-30 yielded lower BW than PJP-0. All treatments had similar effects on Leg W in pullets. These results indicate there is GPJP potential as a poultry feed ingredient to reduce the burden of overreliance on cereals.