Growth performance, blood profile and economic analysis of broilers fed fermented mixture of cassava flour and bovine blood (cassablood) based diets

Abstract

The effect of dietary treatments on growth performance, haematological and biochemical indices of finisher broilers as well as economics of broiler production were determined in this fermented cassava flour/blood mixture code-named "cassablood". The control diet (T1) contained 0% cassablood, while diets 2, 3 and 4 contained 20%, 25% and 30% cassablood respectively. 120 four weeks old Anak broiler chicken were randomly allocated the 4 diets with 30 birds per treatment replicated 3 times with ten 10 broilers per replicate in a completely randomized design (CRD). Treatment effects on final body weight, final weight gain, feed intake and seed conversion ratio were significant (P<0.05). Birds fed cassablood based diets compared favourably with the control diet. 20% cassablood inclusion performed equally with the control diet in feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio.All dietary groups also showed no significant differences (P>0.05) in most haematological and serum biochemical indices of broilers except in cholesterol, glucose and triglyceride contentswhichdiffered (P<0.05) significantly. Similarly, chicken on 20% and 25% inclusion levels produced significantly (P < 0.05) higher economic gains in terms of feed cost per kilogram of broiler among all the treatments. Therefore, 20 - 25% cassablood dietary inclusion level was recommended in broiler diet for production and profit maximization.