Utilization of Noodle Waste as Replacement for Maize in the Diet of Broiler Starter Chickens

Abstract

Noodle waste (NW) is an alternative source of energy and less expensive compared to maize which is one of the main conventional source of energy in the diet of poultry. This study was designed to determine the effect of replacing maize fraction of the diet with NW on growth characteristics, cost benefits and blood indices of broiler starter chicken. One hundred and twenty day old Anak, 2000 broilers chicks of mean weight  of 40.78±1.7g were randomly selected and allotted to 4 dietary treatments. Each treatment was replicated thrice with ten chicks per replicate in a completely randomized design. Four diets were formulated to contain 0% (T1), 50% (T2), 75% (T3), 100% (T4) of NW as replacement for maize fraction of the entire diet.  Parameters taken were weight gain, feed intake.  Feed conversion ratio, total feed cost, and cost per weight gain were calculated. The feeding lasted for 28 days. Blood indices such as packed cell volume (PCV), Red blood cell count (RBC)and White blood cell(WBC) and total protein etc. were measured or calculated. Significant differences (P=.05) were observed in the mean total feed intake of the chicks fed diet containing varied levels of NW. There were significant differences in the mean total weight gain of chicks fed diet containing 100% NW and the control diet (P=.05), however, the least weight gain was recorded in the diet containing 100% NW. The feed conversion ratio was significantly different from one another (P=.05) in diet containing 0% and 100% NW as replacement for maize.  The dietary treatments had no significant effect on the PCV, RBC and WBC and blood total protein (P>0.05). The lowest cost/weight gain was recorded in the diet containing 75% NW as replacement for maize while the highest cost/weight gain was recorded in the diet containing 100%NW. It was concluded that NW could replace maize fraction of the diet of broiler starter chickens up to 75% without any adverse effect on performance characteristics but at reduced cost