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Effects of differently processed taro (Colocasia esculenta [(L.) Schott]) on growth performance and carcass characteristics of broiler finishers.

2011; Volume: 1; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

2228-6322

A. D. Ologhobo, Isaac Oluseun Adejumo,

Aquatic life and conservation

The study assessed the effects of differently processed taro cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta) on performance, feed intake and carcass characteristics of broiler finishers. 126 day-old chicks were used in the study, with a mean weight of 173.30g. They were randomly allotted to one of the six treatment diets with 21 birds per treatment with 3 replicates. The trial lasted for eight weeks. The control diet contained maize while the other treatments were taro cocoyam preparations as follows; raw unpeeled sundried, raw peeled sundried, boiled unpeeled sundried, boiled peeled sundried and sundried peel. The results of the experiment showed that mean weight gain of birds on raw unpeeled sundried taro cocoyam with mean weight of 1110.00g; those on raw peeled sundried taro cocoyam (1126.70g), and peels (836.70g) were significantly (p<0.05) lower than those on the control diet (1850.00g). Those on boiled unpeeled sundried and boiled peeled sundried taro cocoyam with mean values of 1513.30g and 1613.30g respectively, were statistically similar to the control diet. Final weight gain had similar trends across the treatments. Higher values of feed intake were achieved in diets containing boiled unpeeled sundried taro cocoyam (73.50g), boiled peeled sundried taro cocoyam (70.30g) and peels (69.80g). Feed conversion ratio was higher in the treatment diets, with highest value obtained in diet containing peels with a mean value of 4.70. Mean live weight of diets containing raw unpeeled sundried, raw peeled sundried taro cocoyam and peels with mean values of 1083.30g, 1130.00g and 926.70g respectively were significantly (p<0.05) lower than the value obtained from the control diet with a mean value of 1703.30g. Mean eviscerated weight and dressed weight had similar trends across the treatments. Internal organs except gizzard did not statistically vary across the treatments. Cooking taro was observed to improve suitability of taro as a feed ingredient for broiler finishers.