Abstract:
Chicken production faces unsustainable supply of quality and affordable feeds. Prosopis pods could be used as an alternative livestock feed ingredient. A study was designed to evaluate the inclusion of prosopis pods in improved grower indigenous chickens diets in Kenya. The objectives were to determine effects of prosopis pods-based diets in indigenous chicken on performance and meat quality. In experiment 1, diets were formulated by substituting growers‟ rations with prosopis at 0% (T1), 10% (T2), 20% (T3) and 30% (T4) while experiment 2 were formulated by substituting maize in the diet with GPJP at 0% (T1), 10% (T2), 20% (T3) and 30% (T4). A completely randomized design was used with four cockerels and four pullets per treatment in separate cages replicated three times. The results from experiment 1 showed a significant difference (p<0.05) between treatments where similar FI of 70.99, 70.56 and 69.02 g/day and weight gains of 12.91, 12.15 and 11.66 g/day were recorded in 0, 10 and 20% levels respectively while 30% recorded lower values at 61.31 and
9.08g/day for FI and weight gain respectively in pullets. In cockerels, treatments showed significant differences (p<0.05) with 0, 10 and 20% levels in the diets having similar FI of
94.24, 92.67 and 87.64g respectively but lower than diet with 30% level with 79.46g. Weight gain was similar in diets with 0, 10 and 20% substitution level with 20.65, 19.37 and 18.83g respectively but lower than in diet with 30% prosopis pods with 15.95g. Diet with 30% had higher values that diets with 0 and 20% level. In pullets, diet with 20% level had significantly lower (p<0.05) BW of 225.40g than all the other treatments. All treatments produced meat with similar (p>0.05) breast and drumstick pH apart from diet with 20% level which had higher pH values of 5.97 than diet with 30%. In pullet breast, diet with 0% level had higher appearance values than other treatments with 79.60. In experiment 2, FI and weight gain were similar for diets with 0-20% in cockerels. In pullets, diets with 10-30% level had similar effect on FI but diets with 0-30% had similar effects on weight gain and LWC. Feed conversion ratio was similar across all treatments in all birds. Results for diets with 0-20% and 0-10% levels were similar but significantly higher than diets with 30 and 20-30% for BW and LW respectively in cockerels. The study concluded that diets with 20% of prosopis pods could substitute improved grower indigenous chicken diet and the maize portion in experiment 1 and 2 respectively. The inclusion of mature pods in the chicken diet can contribute to sustainable and reliable supply of a feed ingredient and reduce overreliance on conventional livestock feed ingredients.
