Abstract

Aim: The study was aimed to evaluate the impact of feeding dried restaurants food leftovers (DRFLM) as partial replacement of the expensive maize on growth performances and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens.

Method and materials:  The DRFLM was mixed with other feed ingredients as replacement of maize at 0% (control diet, T₁), 5% (T₂), 10% (T₃) and 15% (T₄) respectively. After four weeks of brooding, one hundred sixty unsexed broiler chickens were randomly allocated into four treatment diets with four replicates of 10 chicks each. Feed consumption and body weight were measured on daily and weekly basis respectively. At the end of the feeding trial, two birds (one male and female) were used to evaluate the carcass components. The daily feed consumption (g/chicken) was 108, 109, 110 and 110 for T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄ diets respectively.

Results: Chickens reared on control diet had the lower (p<0.05) final body weight (1790g) than those of T₂ (1834g), T₃ (1867g) and T₄ (1914g) but differed significantly (p<0.05) from each other. The lowest feed conversion ratio (kg feed/kg weight gain) was recorded with chickens fed on T₄ (2.77) as compared to those reared on T₁ (2.93), T₂ (2.89) and T₃ diets (2.85) and differed significantly (p<0.05) from each other. Male chickens had (p<0.05) higher values for all carcass components than females except for wings. Chickens fed with T₄ had higher (p<0.05) breast meat, thighs, drumsticks and keel bone meat values than those of T₁. Chickens fed on T₄ had higher (p<0.05) thighs and drumsticks than those of T₁, T₂ and T₃ diets. The highest dressing percentage was observed in chickens reared in T₄ (68.1%) followed by T₃ (66.8%) and differed (p<0.05) from those of T₂ (64.2%) and T₁ (63.7%).

Conclusion: In conclusion, the DRFLM can safely be included up to 15% in the broiler diets by replacing maize grain in smallholder poultry settings for improved and sustainable food security of the poor community.

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