EFFECT OF GRADED LEVELS OF AFRICAN LOCUST BEAN (Parkia biglobosa) PULP ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF JAPANESE QUAILS (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Abstract

Two hundred and forty, two weeks old quails were used to determine the effect of the inclusion of African Locust bean pulp in the diets of Japanese quails on their growth performance. The birds were divided into 5 treatment group of 48 birds each and each group was further divided 4 replicates of 12 birds in a completely randomized design. The birds were fed grower diets from 2 weeks to the end of the experiment. Data obtained on the growth performance and carcass of the quails was subjected to a one way analysis of  variance. The average daily feed intake, average daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of the birds were not significantly (P>0.05) different across all the dietary treatment. The value for the daily feed intake 16.57g/bird and average daily weight gain 3.66g/bird were observed to be higher in T3 (10%) African locust bean pulp and T1 (0%) locust bean pulp. Bird fed T1 (0%) locust bean pulp had the best feed conversion ratio with the value of 4.43. Therefore, it was concluded that African Locust Bean pulp can be incorporated into the diets of Japanese quails up to 20% as an energy source
without any deleterious effect on the growth performance and carcass of the birds.