Effect of Fish Offal Meal on Feed Intake, Growth Performances and Carcass Characteristics of Hubbard Classic Broiler Chicken Breeds

Abstract

The effect of partial substitution of full-fatted soybean poultry meal by fish offal meal in broiler chicks was investigated. The experiment had four treatment diets: diet-1(control, without animal protein); diet-2 (local fishmeal); diet-3 (fermented fish silage); and diet-4 (local tilapia meal). Treatment diets substituted the full-fatted soybean meal in the control diet at 5% level. Unsexed 180, one day old Hubbard Classic broiler chicks were randomly allocated tothe four treatment diets. Treatments had three replications of 15 birds per pen, in a completely randomized design. The experiment has three phases and lasted for 42 days. Overall, feed intake, body weight changes (BWC) and average daily body weight gain (ADG) were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by a diet that diet-1 was lower than fish offal based diets (diets 2, 3, and 4). During the starter period, birds in diet-1 and diet-4 had lower (p<0.05) BWC and ADG than diet 2 and 3. During the finisher period, birds in diet-4 had heavier (p< 0.05) BWC and ADG than diets 1 and 3. There was significantly (p< 0.05) better feed conversion ratio during the finisher period in diet-1 and diet-4 than the rest of the treatments. During the experimental period, higher mortality (p<0.05; 11.1%) was recorded in diet-1 than other diets. Diet-1 was lower in most of the carcass parameters studied. To conclude, regardless of fish species differences, incorporation of fish offal meal into plant-sourced protein diet improves the performance of broiler chicken. In addition, the results indicated that fish silage can also be an alternative to fishmeal.