ABSTRACT

 Ninety-six (96) day-old broilers of Anak breed were used to study the effect of dietary inclusion of Tetrapleura tetraptera pod meal (TPM) on growth performance and blood profiles of the birds in a completely randomized design experiment. The birds were randomly divided into four (4) treatment groups of twenty-four (24) birds each. Each treatment was replicated thrice. Treatment one ( control) contained 0.0% TPM, whereas treatments two, three and four contained 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5 dietary inclusion of TPM, respectively. Birds fed 0.0% and 0.5% TPM had similar (P>0.05) final weight (1790.8g and 1655.69), respectively; and were significantly (P<0.05) heavier than those fed 1.0% and 1.5% TPM (1225.4g and 1341.07g), respectively. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was lowest (P<0.05) in the control diet (3.39) compared to diets containing 1.0% (5.19) and 1.5% (4.47) TPM, but was similar to that in 0.5% TPM (3.86). Weight of intestines showed only marginal (P>0.05) variations in birds fed 0.0% (5.57), 0.5% (6.85), and 1.5% (6.84) TPM. A significant (P<0.05) difference existed between birds fed 0.0% and 1.0% (7 .99) TPM. There were significant variations in the weight of lungs among birds fed 0.0%, 0.5% and 1.5% TPM. Significant (P<0.05) differences only occurred in mean corpuscular haemoglobin (15.15, 11.00, 15.88 and 12.3 l)µm3, respectively and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (23.76,17.61, 25.36, 19.70)% respectively among all haematological indices. There were significant (P<0.05) variations in serum protein, ALT, AST, ALP, Urea and HDL cholesterol, though they followed no defined trend. Including 0.5%, TPM had favourable impact on feed intake and growth of finisher broilers, without deleterious effect on blood profile.