ABSTRACT

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of using five different sources of dietary plant protein and enzyme supplementation on productive performance and economics of production of broiler chickens in a 5 x 2 factorial arrangement in a Completely Randomized Design experiment. Two hundred broiler chicks aged one week old were assigned to ten experimental diets. Diet 1contained Cashew Nut Meal(CNM), while Diets 2,3,4,and 5 contained Soyabean Meal(SBM),Groundnut Cake(GNC),Full Fat Soya(FFS) and Cottonseed Cake(CSC) without enzyme supplementation, while Diets 6,7,8,9 and 10 were supplemented with  CIBENZA® DP100 which is a protease enzyme in the same order. Each dietary group had 20 birds with 10 birds per replicate. Birds fed Groundnut cake diet (3 and 8) have the highest mean daily intake (110.6g) that was significantly different (P<0.05) from others while Soyameal diet( 2 and  7) gave the best feed- to-gain ratio(2.95) which is closely followed by Full fat soya diet ( 4 and 9) as well as Cashewnut meal diet(1 and 6).Birds fed Cashewnut meal diet(I and 6)  had the highest revenue(₦­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­632.59)which was significantly (P<0.05) different from others and performed best. Results indicated that CIBENZA® DP100 supplementation reduced ADFI and was significantly different (P<0.05) from treatments without enzyme supplementation. Treatments with enzyme supplementation had the best feed-to-gain ratio  (2.94) compared to those without enzyme supplementation (4.03).It is concluded that enzyme supplementation  had tremendous beneficial effect on production parameters and economics of production, while Cashewnut meal  performed best among the comparable protein source.