Response of Broiler Chickens to Graded Levels of Urea Treated Rice Offal
A total of ninety (90) day-old unsexed broiler chickens averaging 50.0 grammes were utilized for the purpose of accessing their response to graded levels of urea treated rice offal. These were randomly allocated into 3 equal groups of 30 birds in each treatment replicated 3 times with each replicate having 10 birds. Three (3) diets designated I, II and III were formulated such that urea treated rice offal was included at 0, 7.5% and 15.0% respectively. The results show that there were no significant differences (P>0.05) in feed intake, weight gain and efficiency of feed utilization among birds fed the control diet and urea treated rice offal based diets. However, feed intake and weight gain were highest with birds fed 15.0% urea treated rice offal compared with those fed the control diet. Finally, feed cost per unit weight gain significantly improved (P0.05) in feed cost per unit weight gain among birds fed the control diet and those fed the diet containing 7.5% urea treated rice offal. On the basis of the results obtained, it may be recommended that urea treated rice offal could be included at up to 15.0% of the diet of broiler chickens without any adverse effect on their performance.
