Evaluation of carcass characteristics of broiler chickens (cobb 500) fed on cowpeas (vigna unguiculata)

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Date
2013
Authors
Banda, Thomas
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Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect on carcass characteristics of Cobb 500 broiler chickens of supplementing cowpea meal with Methionine and Lysine only as well as supplementing the cowpea with Methionine, Lysine and Threonine. A total number of 100 day old chicks were used. An experimental diet containing soya bean meal supplemented with Methionine and Lysine was used as control. Each treatment had three replications in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and each replicate had eleven chicks. After 42 days of the experiment, three chickens were randomly selected from each replicate, slaughtered, eviscerated and cut into breast, thigh and drumstick and fat removed from the abdomen for evaluation of carcass characteristics. The average weights of the breast muscles, thighs, drum sticks and abdominal fat were used in the analysis. There was no significant difference among treatments (P<0.05) though birds on soya bean containing diet had a better performance compared with either of the other treatments. However, cow pea with Threonine amino acid showed better performance than that only supplemented with Methionine and Lysine. Key words: Cowpeas, Threonine, carcass characteristics, broilers.
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Keywords
Broilers (poultry)
Citation
The University of Zambia
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