Impact of Germinated off Season Sorghum Dietary on Apparent Digestibility and Small Intestinal Histology of Broilers in Maroua Far North Cameroon

Abstract

In order to find a solution to maize in the composition of poultry feed, a study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the substitution of maize by germinated off-season sorghum as an alternative energy source on nutrients digestibility and histological of small intestinal of broilers. To achieve this, 180 of the 1-day-old chicks of the "Cobb 500" strain with a live weight of 34g ± 3.26, were randomly divided into 9 batches corresponding to 3 treatments with 3 replicates of 20 subjects. The batches were subjected to one of 3 diets: 100% maize (R0), 50% maize and 50% germinated off-season sorghum (R1) and 100% germinated off-season sorghum (R2). To achieve these objectives at 18 and then at 35 days of age, a total of 36 broilers were used, i.e. 18 in the start-up phase at a rate of 6 subjects per treatment and 18 in the growth/finishing phase at a rate of 6 subjects per treatment and the droppings and feed from digestibility trials; measured apparent digestibility (Ad) for energy, protein, fiber, mineral matter and organic matter; histological studies of the small intestine were performed. Energy, organic matter, mineral matter, proteins and fibres were not significantly influenced by the experimental diets used at the 0.05% threshold for digestibility and the histological sections did not show any structural and morphological alterations. We can therefore conclude that maize can be substituted at 50% and 100% by germinated off-season sorghum without negatively impacting digestibility in broilers at the start, as well as in growth/finishing.