Effect of Bread Fruit (Artocarpus altilis) Flour on Growth Performance and Meat Quality Parameters of Broiler Chickens
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Date
2020
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Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Breadfruit flour (BFF) is considered as an energy rich food ingredient which provides an
excellent source of calories for the diet. The study reported herein was conducted to
determine the effect of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) flour on growth performance and
meat quality parameters of broiler chickens. Ninety-day old Cobb 500 broiler chicks were
randomly assigned into three dietary treatments as control (0% BFF), treatment 1 (5%
BFF), and treatment 2 (10% BFF) in a booster, starter and finisher diets, respectively.
Each treatment replicated three times with 10 birds per replicate. Body weight, feed
intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were recorded for 5-weeks. On day-36, two birds
from each replicate were randomly selected and were slaughtered for carcass analysis.
Data were analysed using a one-way analysis for a variance by using Minitab 17 software.
Tukey multiple range test was used to determine the significant differences between
experimented groups at p<0.05. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) on feed
intake of broilers fed different dietary treatments. Birds fed 10% BFF achieved the
highest (p<0.05) weight gain and the lowest FCR compared to other treatments. The
highest (p<0.05) dressing percentage and the relative weights (p<0.05) of heart, liver, and
intestines were recorded from the birds fed the diet having 10% BFF. No significant
effect (p>0.05) was observed in proximate composition and meat quality parameters
tested. Sensory attributes were higher in birds fed treatment 2 and the highest (p<0.05)
overall acceptability was recorded by the birds fed with 10% BFF. In conclusion,
breadfruit flour can be incorporated into broiler diets at a 10% level to enhance body
weight, good carcass yield, and to improve meat quality parameters of broiler chickens
without any negative effects.
Keywords: Breadfruit flour, Broiler chickens, Growth performance, Meat quality
Description
Keywords
Agriculture, Animal Sciences