ABSTRACT

A study was conducted to determine the effects of Sundried cassava root meal and white sorghum as sources of energy in the diet ofbroiler finishers. A batch offresh bitter cassava root tubers (TMS 8082 variety) was washed and cut into pieces, dried in the sun and milled. Both fresh and processed sundried cassava root tuber meals were analyzed for proximate composition and cyanide contents. The sundried cassava meal and sorghum were used to make six broilers finisher diets such that diet 1 (the control) contained yellow maize as the main energy source while diets 2,3,4,5, and 6 contained sundried cassava root meal and white sorghum in different combinations such as 15%:45%; 20%:40%; 25%:35%; 30%:30%; 35%:25%, to completely replace maize in the control diets while other ingredients remained constant. Fresh cassava tuber contained 54.77mg/kg cyanide while sundried tuber contains 5.22mg/kg. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in proximate composition of the two samples. The experimental diets were assigned to the one hundred and forty-four (144) Anak broilers of 4 weeks of age using a completely randomized design. The broilers were divided into 6 treatment units of 24 broilers each and each treatment units was further divided into two replicates of 12 broilers each. They were fed adlibitum, daily feed intake was collected and body weight gain was recorded weekly. In the finisher trial, the broiler finishers fed 30% process sundried cassava root meal and 30% white sorghum (diets) as a main energy sources recorded the highest body weight gain, highest feed intake and moderate feed conversion ratio which was significantly p<0.05 different from other groups. Diets 2, 3, 4 and 5 appeared to be the more economical to use in feeding broilers finishers because the cost of production per/kg broiler finisher were 271.94, 262.47, 255.59, and 248.72 respectively versus 480.95 for the control diet. The result ofthe trial showed that sundried cassava root meal and white sorghum can be used successfully to replace maize in the diets of finisher broilers without affecting weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio.