Growth performance of indigenous chickens fed graded levels of toasted velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) meal

Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted with 48, four weeks old growing indigenous chickens to study the optimum inclusion level of toasted velvet bean meal. Four isonitrogenous (16% crude protein), iso-energetic (2857 kcal/kg) with similar crude fibre (15%) diets were formulated. The diets incorporating graded levels (0, 10, 20 and 30 %) of toasted velvet bean seed meal were fed for 42 days in a completely randomized design. The birds were randomly allocated to four dietary treatments, each treatment was replicated three times with 4 birds per replicate. Feed intake and weight change did not differ significantly (P>0.05) across the treatments. Feed conversion ratio showed a significant difference between 10% inclusion level and 30 % inclusion level of velvet bean meal. The significant difference (P<0.05) on feed intake and weight change were observed on different weeks of the feeding trial. It was concluded that toasted velvet bean seed meal can be included up to 30% level in diets of growing indigenous chickens without any deleterious effects.