Effects of Groundnut Shell Meal (GSM) on the Performance and Haematological Indices of Finisher Broilers

Abstract

In order to incorporate agro industrial by-products in poultry diets, the effect of feed substitution of the crude protein content of groundnut shell meal with that of palm kernel cake in the performance of broilers was investigated. The study involved 150 mixed sexed broiler finisher birds divided into five groups of 50 each. Five treatments corresponded to the five groups. The control treatment T₀ had no groundnut shell meal while the other four treatments included replacement of groundnut shell meal with palm kernel cake at 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 and 10 % (T₀, T_2.5, T₅, T_7.5 and T₁₀ respectively). All treatments had the same calculated levels of crude protein and metabolisable energy contents. Results showed no evidence of the effect of treatments on feed efficiency (P> 0.05). However, there was evidence that feed intake, live weight gain, average final live weight of birds receiving the control diet T₀ were lower than those receiving 10% substitution with palm kernel cake (P<0.05). There was evidence that carcasses of chickens fed the T₅ diet were lower (P <0.05) than those fed T₁₀ but similar to T₀ and T_7.5 (P> 0.05). T₁₀ proved to be the most profitable diet. Therefore, groundnut shell meal can be substituted up to 10% with palm kernel cake in the proportions used in this trial without detrimental effects on growth performance of broilers.