EFFECT OF DIFFERENT HEAT TREA TMENT OF BAOBAB (Adansonia digitata) SEED AS AN ALTERNATIVE PLANT PROTEIN SOURCE ON HAEMATOLOGICAL AND BLOOD CHEMISTRY OF LOCAL TURKEY

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of boiling time of baobab (Adansonia digitata) seed meal as a partial replacement of soya beans meal on anti-nutritional factors, haematological and blood chemistry of local turkey. Raw baobab seeds were boiled for 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. The boiled baobab seed meals (BBSM) were used to replace 10% of soya beans meal. Seventy five poults were randomly selected and allocated to treatment diets with 15 poults per treatment and 5 poults per replicate. Proximate analysis of the experimental diets and anti-nutritional factors of the raw and boiled (30, 60, 90 and 120mins) BBSM were carried out. On the 9th week of the feeding trial, blood was collected from the poults for haematological and blood chemistry assays. The results obtained showed there was general reduction in the content of anti-nutritional factors (tannin, phytate and trypsin inhibitors) as a result of different boiling time of raw baobab seed. Monocyte count was different (P<0.05) among the treatment means with 30 mins BBSM having the highest count. The 30 mins BBSM recorded higher (P<0.05) creatinine compared the other treatments. Alkaline phosphate content was higher (P<0.05) for the control and 30 mins BBSM compared to 120 mins BBSM. It can be concluded that boiling reduces the content of anti-nutritional factors of raw baobab seeds and assisted the growing turkey in handling the anti-nutritional factors.