Open AccessEffect of dietary protein levels on the performance and carcass characteristics of cockerel finishers
Author(s) -
R. I. Salami,
O. G. Longe,
J. A. Oluyemi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
nigerian journal of animal production
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0331-2062
DOI - 10.51791/njap.v31i1.1445
Subject(s) - zoology , biology , dietary protein , food science , carcass weight , feed conversion ratio , body weight , endocrinology
A study was carried out to investigate the effect of dietary crude protein (CP) levels in diets of 2600kcal kg metabolisable energy content on the performance and carcass characteristics of cockerel finishers. The experimental diets A, B, C, D and E contained CP levels of 140, 160, 180, 200 and 200g kg and they were produced by modified diet dilution technique. Response criteria such as weight gain and feed conversion ratio, among others, and carcass characteristics were measured. Results on performance and carcass characteristics, with the exception of the neck, intestinal weights and other visceral offals, revealed that these response criteria were optimized in the birds fed on 180g kg dietary CP level. Beyond this level, it was nor beneficial to feed higher CP levels. It is therefore, concluded that the CP requirement of finisher cockerels is 18% on the bases of their Performance and carcass characteristics.