ABSTRACT

 A 28 - day feeding trial involving Ninety (90), four-week old Anak broiler chicks was conducted to evaluate the growth performance and Haematological characteristic of broiler finishers fed bambara groundnut offal based diet supplemented with roxazyme G, enzyme. The broiler were assigned to three treatment groups of 30 bird per treatment and 10 birds per replicate. The birds were assigned to treatments in a completely randomized design. The birds were weighed at the beginning of the experiment and weekly thereafter. The experimental diets and water were provided on ad-Hbitum basis and feed intake was accorded daily. The chicks were fed diets containing bambara groundnut offal (BGO) at 0% and without enzyme supplementation (diet 1), 20% BGO without enzyme supplementation (diet 2) and 20% BGO with enzyme supplementation (diet 3). The results of the experiment showed that bambara groundnut offal contain moderate crude protein of 19.47% and low crude fibre level of 8.52%. significant difference (P<0.05) were observed in average daily feed intake, and feed cost/bird ofthe birds. The daily feed intake of the birds fed diet 2 (20% BGO without enzyme) (149.60g) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than the control diet (diet 1) (142.43g) but similar to bird fed diet 3 (20% BGO with enzyme (145.09g). birds fed diet 3 had similar (P>0.05) daily fed intake to those fed control diet. Final live weight ofthe birds fed diet 2, (1300g) higher than birds on 0% BGO in (diet 1) 1200g and 20% BGO in (diet 3) (1246.67) respectively. The average daily weight gain were 27.50g; 27.85g, and 25.95g for birds fed 1,2, and 3 respectively while feed conversion ratio was 5.19, 5.43 and 5.64 respectively. No significant difference (P>0.05) were observed in final live weight, average daily weight gain, feed cost/kg in weight gain, cost/kg of feed, feed conversion ratio, of the birds fed diets 1, 2 and 3. Enzyme supplementation of BGO diets significantly (P<0.05) improved performance of the birds, with reduced cost of feed/bird. Supplementation of BGO based diets with roxazyme G. (enzyme) resulted in cheaper feed cost/bird and reduce cost offeed per kilogramme were N950, N805.57, and N778.42 for bird fed diet 1,2 and 3 respectively. There were no significant difference in the haematological profile of the broilers fed various diets. The haemaglobin values were 6.73g/dl, 6.93g/dl and 7.4g/dl for birds fed diets 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Mean corpuscular volume and white blood cell of the birds were 175.18, 173.86 and 166.38 and 3.20, 2.55 and 2.67 for diet 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The conclusion was that raw bambara groundnut can be fed to broiler up to 20 /o with enzymes supplementation without affecting the growth and blood parameters ofthe birds.