Performance, nutrient digestibility and cost evaluation of raw and roasted Afzelia africana seed meal fed finisher broiler chicks

Ninety-nine, 28 day-old broilers were used to investigate the effect of raw and roasted Afzelia Africana seed meal (AASM) on performance, apparent nutrient digestibility and nitrogen retention and cost of broiler production under deep litter system of management for 35 days in the finisher phase. The birds were allotted to three treatments with 33 birds. Each treatment was replicated three times (11 birds per replicate). The data collected were feed intake and body weight gain. Protein efficiency ratio (PER), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and apparent nutrient digestibility were also calculated. The results obtained revealed that chicks fed control (A) diet were significantly (P<0.05) higher in weight gain and feed intake than others. Superior (P<0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), daily feed cost and feed cost per kg weight gain were obtained in roasted dehulled AASM(C) diet when compared to the control and raw AASM diets. The apparent nutrient digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, crude fibre, ash, nitrogen free extract and nitrogen retention of roasted diet compared favourably with that of the control diet. The row AASM (B) diet depressed performance and nutrient retention values. The cost per kg diet and cost per live weight gain reduced significantly (P<P.05) in AASM based diets when compared to the control diet. However, the control diet significantly (P<0.05) increased the revenue generated and gross profit when compared to AASM based diets. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that higher levels of roasted AASM may have some benefits.