UTILIZATION OF DIETARY LEVELS OF SUPER SOSAT MILLET (Pennisetum glaucum) BY BROILER CHICKENS

Abstract

Fifty-six (56) days experiment was conducted at the Bauchi State College of Agriculture, Bauchi, Poultry Farm to evaluate the performance of broiler chickens fed graded levels of Super SOSAT millet (SSM) based diets. Four experimental diets were formulated and designated as diets 1 (0%), 2 (33%), 3 (66%) and 4 (100%) SSM inclusion levels. A total of 208 day-old unsexed Marshal broiler chicks were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments of 52 birds per treatment, replicated four times with thirteen birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. The results revealed that most of the performance attributes at starter and finisher phases as well as overall performance were significantly influenced by the dietary levels of SSM. At the starter phase: initial weights (IWT) (119.24-127g) were statistically similar. However, starter final weight (FWT) (555.61- 705.99g); daily feed intake (DFI) (61.80-67.79g), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (3.27-4.09) weresignificantly (P<0.05) affected.  Daily weight gain (DWG) (15.27-20.75g) was also affected at (P<0.01). Similar trend was observed at the finisher phase: initial weight ranged from (555.61-705.99g), FWT (1592.10- 1899.50g) and DFI (121.27-131.93g) were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments. However, DWG (37.02- 43.40g) and FCR (3.04-3.34) were not affected. The overall performance indicated (IWT) (341.75-415.53g), FWT (1073.86-1302.75g), DWG (26.15-31.69g) was significant at P<0.05. DFI (91.39-99.86g) and FCR (3.19- 3.72) were significantly (P<0.01) influenced by the dietary levels of SSM. In most of the parameters measured, the best performance was obtained in broiler birds fed diet 4. It can be concluded that SSM can completely replace maize as dietary energy source in the diets of broiler chickens with no adverse effect on performance.