Effect of feeding cactus (Opuntia ficus indica) fruit meal as a partial replacement of maize on feed intake, growth performance and carcass characteristics of Cobb 500 broiler chickens

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding cactus (Opuntia ficus indica)fruit meal as a partial replacement of maize on perormance of Cobb 500 breed ofbroilers.A total of 160, 18- days old unsexed chicks with equal mean weight wererandomly assigned to 4 treatment diets in completely randomized desgn with 4 replicats.The tratments contained 0% CFM (Cactus Fruit Meal)(T 1 ), 2.25% CFM (T 2 ), 4.5% CFM(T 3 ) and 6.75% CFM (T 4 ) as replacement of maize.. At the end of the experiment, onemale and one female chick per replicate were slaughtered to evaluate carcasscharacteristics. The results obtained showed that there were no significant differences(P>0.05) between all the treatments in dry matter intakes. The intake of ash, crudeprotein, ether extract and crude fiber increased but, metabolizable energy decreased(P<0.05) with increasing levels of CFM in the diet. The daily weight gain significantelyincreased (P<0.05) with increasing levels of CFM. Weight at slaughter, drumstick, thigh,commercial carcass and total edible weight of male chicks were heavier (P<0.05) than thefemale counter parts whereas there was no significant difference between sexes in otheredible carcasses. The wing weight for T1 was higher (P<0.05) than that of T2 while T3and T4 had a similar value. The drumstick weight for T4 and T1 was greater (P<0.05)than that of T2. The thigh weight for T4 was higher (P<0.05) than that of T2. T2 hadlower (P<0.05) dressing percentage than that of T1. There was no significant difference inother non edible carcasses. Hence, cactus fruit meal could be used as alternative sourceof energy in areas where maize is scarce and unavailable for feeding Cobb 500 broilerchickens (see the comment on separate page).